🔗 Share this article

Loved ones of people buried in resting places vulnerable to coastal erosion state that indecision over how to tackle the issue is creating unnecessary distress about the final resting places of their departed family.

An Impending Danger to Ancient Graveyards

Local authorities have identified three church graveyards in the villages of Happisburgh, Trimingham, and Mundesley as being in danger of being swallowed by the ocean in the next few generations.

A recent report on the situation details a range of possible actions, from taking no action to exhuming remains and relocating them in safer sites. Officials maintain it is for local people to decide how to proceed.

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

Projections suggest at least a portion of one graveyard could fall into the waves in the next 80 years, but some locals worry it will happen much sooner. “I think it’s got less than 20 years, if you consider what’s occurred in the last 30 years,” a farmer stated.

Troubled by the Ghosts of Eccles

A local business owner recalled a childhood visit to the nearby settlement of Eccles, which has largely disappeared into the water, along with its church and graveyard.

“You could see human remains,” she said. “Certain people hold this idealized notion that the deceased will just get washed out to sea. They won’t. People will collect remains as souvenirs and go plundering graves in search of treasures. That is completely disrespectful.”

“I fear that the identical fate that happened at Eccles will happen at Happisburgh and there’ll be bones on the shore. I’d be appalled by that.”

A Soldier's Grave in Peril

Along the coast lies the burial plot of a ex-soldier who died while serving abroad. His parent expressed she could not sleep after discovering her child's final plot might one day be moved.

“It does disturb me to consider this may not remain his lasting resting place,” she said. “For us it’s an significant site to visit.”

In her view, new interments should stop but says it is too soon to disturb current plots. “What I would choose for now is to do nothing and closely monitor, but an timely resolution must be made when a tipping point has been reached.”

Seeking Solutions and Certainty

An absence of consensus over the timing and method to handle the problem has left bereaved families feeling frustrated and anxious.

Several families want additional coastal protections to slow the inevitable erosion and to allow burials to proceed for now. Different voices argue the moment for relocation is drawing near.

“It is very emotional,” said one relative. “The official study was thorough, but now there’s uncertainty about how it is taken forward. And all parties is avoiding responsibility over who is accountable.”

A coastal manager confirmed the graveyards were under the care of the local diocese. “Ultimately it is down to them to decide the direction to take. Our role is here to assist them through that process with communities.”

It was also stated there was time to consider all the choices. “We are talking many years before it starts to be lost.”

“Currently, there exists no common view on what should happen yet. We need good local conversations to find the right solutions for each community.”

The possibility of the loss of the churches and graveyards was described as one of “immense sadness for the area,” but faith leaders also spoke of a belief in life after death, providing a spiritual viewpoint on the physical loss of sacred ground.