🔗 Share this article

Families of people laid to rest in graves at risk from shoreline retreat state that a lack of decision on how best to tackle the issue is creating avoidable anguish about the final resting places of their departed family.

An Impending Threat to Historic Graveyards

Local authorities have identified three burial grounds in the villages of Happisburgh, Mundesley, and Trimingham as being at risk of being engulfed by the ocean in the coming decades.

A recent report on the issue sets out a series of possible actions, from doing nothing to disinterring bodies and reburying them in more secure sites. Authorities say it is for local people to decide how to move forward.

“Right now we’re in a state of uncertainty. It causes me distress. My parents wanted this to be their final resting place, but it won't be because of the sea.”

Projections suggest at least a portion of one churchyard could fall into the sea in the next 80 years, but some residents fear it will happen far earlier. “I think it’s got less than 20 years, if you consider what’s happened in the last 30 years,” a farmer stated.

Troubled by the Ghosts of Eccles

One resident remembered a childhood visit to the neighbouring village of Eccles, which has largely disappeared into the water, along with its place of worship and burial ground.

“You could see human remains,” she said. “Certain people hold this idealized notion that the deceased will just get washed out to the ocean. They won’t. People will collect remains as souvenirs and go grave robbing looking for treasures. It’s completely disrespectful.”

“I fear that the same thing that befell at Eccles will happen here and there’ll be skeletons on the shore. I’d be appalled by that.”

A Paratrooper's Resting Place in Peril

Along the shoreline lies the burial plot of a ex-soldier killed while working overseas. His mother expressed she could not sleep after learning her child's grave might one day be moved.

“It does trouble me to consider this won’t be his lasting resting place,” she said. “For us it’s an significant place to go.”

In her view, new interments should cease but says it is premature to exhume current plots. “What I would choose for now is to take no action and closely monitor, but an early decision needs to be made when a tipping point has been reached.”

Seeking Solutions and Certainty

An absence of agreement over the timing and method to handle the problem has resulted in bereaved families feeling frustrated and anxious.

Several families are calling for more coastal protections to delay the inevitable erosion and to allow funerals to continue for now. Others argue the time for moving graves is approaching.

“The situation is very emotive,” a family member stated. “The official study was thorough, but now there’s confusion about how it is implemented. And all parties is washing their hands over who is accountable.”

A coastal manager said the graveyards were owned and managed of the local diocese. “In the end it is up to them to decide the direction to take. Our role is here to assist them through that process with residents.”

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

“Currently, there exists no unified opinion on what should happen yet. It requires productive community discussions to discover the appropriate solutions for each village.”

The prospect of losing the historic sites was labeled one of “immense sadness for the local community,” but faith leaders also referenced a belief in resurrection, providing a theological perspective on the temporal loss of sacred ground.