🔗 Share this article

Families of people buried in resting places vulnerable to shoreline retreat say that indecision over how to address the issue is creating unnecessary distress concerning the final resting places of their loved ones.

A Looming Threat to Historic Graveyards

The council have singled out three church graveyards in the communities of Happisburgh, Mundesley, and Trimingham as being in danger of being engulfed by the sea in the coming decades.

A recent report on the situation details a series of options, from doing nothing to disinterring bodies and relocating them in more secure sites. Authorities say it is for the community to decide how to move forward.

“At the moment we’re in limbo. It upsets me. My parents wanted this to serve as their last home, but it won't be because of the encroaching sea.”

Projections indicate at least part of one graveyard could be claimed by the waves in the next 80 years, but some locals fear it will happen much sooner. “I think it’s got under 20 years, if you look at what’s occurred in the last 30 years,” a farmer stated.

Troubled by the Ghosts of Eccles

One resident remembered a childhood visit to the neighbouring settlement of Eccles, which has largely disappeared into the water, including its church and graveyard.

“It was possible to see human remains,” she said. “Some have this idealized notion that the deceased will just get washed out to sea. They won’t. Individuals will take bones as souvenirs and go plundering graves looking for treasures. That is completely disrespectful.”

“I fear that the identical fate that befell at Eccles will occur at Happisburgh and there’ll be skeletons on the beach. I’d be disgusted by that.”

A Paratrooper's Grave in Jeopardy

Along the shoreline lies the burial plot of a ex-soldier killed while working overseas. His mother said she lost sleep after discovering her child's final plot might one day be moved.

“It truly disturb me to consider this won’t be his lasting home,” she said. “To our family it’s an significant place to go.”

She believes, new interments should stop but says it is too soon to exhume current plots. “What I would choose for now is to do nothing and watch carefully, but an timely resolution must be made when a critical moment has been attained.”

Seeking Answers and Certainty

The lack of agreement over the timing and method to handle the challenge has left grieving relatives feeling exasperated and anxious.

Several families are calling for additional sea defences to slow the unavoidable loss and to allow funerals to proceed for now. Others argue the moment for moving graves is drawing near.

“It is very emotive,” a family member stated. “The official study was really good, but now there’s confusion about how it is taken forward. And all parties is avoiding responsibility over who is responsible.”

A coastal manager said the burial sites were owned and managed of the local diocese. “In the end it is down to them to choose the path to take. We are here to help support them through that process with communities.”

He added there was ample time to weigh all the options. “We are talking many years before it starts to be lost.”

“Currently, there exists no unified opinion on what should be done yet. It requires productive local conversations to discover the right answers for each community.”

The possibility of losing the historic sites was described as one of “profound sadness for the local community,” but church representatives also spoke of a doctrine in life after death, providing a spiritual perspective on the physical loss of hallowed earth.