🔗 Share this article

Families whose relatives laid to rest in resting places at risk from shoreline retreat state that indecision on how best to tackle the problem is creating avoidable anguish about the final resting places of their loved ones.

A Looming Danger to Ancient Churchyards

The council have singled out three church graveyards in the villages of Happisburgh, Trimingham, and Mundesley as being in danger of being swallowed by the ocean in the coming decades.

A newly published study on the situation sets out a series of possible actions, from doing nothing to disinterring bodies and reburying them in safer locations. Officials say it is for local people to decide how to proceed.

“Right now we’re in limbo. It upsets me. They wanted this to serve as their final resting place, but it isn’t going to be because of the encroaching sea.”

Estimates indicate at least part of one graveyard 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 look at what’s happened in the last 30 years,” one said.

Troubled by the Past

One resident recalled a childhood visit to the neighbouring settlement of Eccles, which has almost entirely vanished into the sea, along with its place of worship and burial ground.

“It was possible to see human remains,” she said. “Certain people hold this idealized notion that the deceased will just get washed out to sea. That is not the case. Individuals will collect remains as mementos and go grave robbing looking for valuables. That is completely disrespectful.”

“I’m worried that the identical fate that befell at Eccles will occur here and there’ll be bones on the shore. I’d be disgusted by that.”

A Soldier's Resting Place in Peril

Further up the shoreline lies the grave of a ex-soldier killed while working overseas. His parent said she lost sleep after discovering her child's final plot might one day be relocated.

“It does trouble me to think this may not remain his permanent resting place,” she said. “To our family it’s an important place to go.”

She believes, new interments should stop but says it is too soon to disturb existing graves. “What I would choose for now is to take no action and watch carefully, but an early decision must be made when a tipping point has been reached.”

Seeking Answers and Certainty

An absence of consensus over when and how to tackle the problem has left bereaved families feeling frustrated and worried.

Some are calling for more sea defences to slow the inevitable erosion and to permit burials to proceed for now. Others argue the moment for relocation is drawing near.

“It is very emotional,” a family member stated. “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 responsible.”

A local official said the graveyards were owned and managed of the church authorities. “Ultimately it is up to them to choose the path to take. Our role is here to help support them through that process with communities.”

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

“There is no common view on what should be done yet. It requires productive community discussions to find the right solutions for each community.”

The prospect of losing the historic sites was labeled one of “profound sorrow for the area,” but faith leaders also spoke of a belief in life after death, providing a theological perspective on the temporal loss of hallowed earth.