🔗 Share this article

Loved ones of people laid to rest in resting places vulnerable to shoreline retreat say that indecision on how best to tackle the issue is causing them unnecessary distress about the eternal homes of their loved ones.

An Impending Danger to Ancient Graveyards

Local authorities have singled out three church graveyards in the villages of Happisburgh, Trimingham, and Mundesley as being at risk of being engulfed by the sea in the coming decades.

A newly published study on the issue details a series of options, from taking no action to exhuming remains and reburying them in safer sites. Authorities maintain it is for local people to determine how to move forward.

“Right now we’re in a state of uncertainty. 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 suggest at least part of one churchyard could be claimed by the waves in the next 80 years, but some locals fear it will happen far earlier. “I think it’s got under 20 years, if you look at what’s occurred in the last 30 years,” one said.

Haunted by the Ghosts of Eccles

One resident recalled a childhood visit to the neighbouring settlement of Eccles, which has almost entirely disappeared into the water, along with its church and graveyard.

“It was possible to see people’s bones,” she said. “Certain people hold this romantic idea that people’s remains will just get washed out to the ocean. That is not the case. People will take bones as mementos and go plundering graves looking for valuables. It’s completely undignified.”

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

A Soldier's Grave in Jeopardy

Along the shoreline lies the grave of a former paratrooper killed while working abroad. His mother expressed she could not sleep after discovering her son’s grave might one day be moved.

“It truly trouble me to consider this may not remain his permanent resting place,” she said. “For us it’s an significant place to go.”

In her view, 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 closely monitor, but an early decision needs to be made when a tipping point has been attained.”

Searching for Answers and Clarity

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

Several families are calling for more sea defences to delay the inevitable erosion and to permit burials to continue for now. Others contend the time for relocation is drawing near.

“It is very emotive,” said one relative. “The council’s report was thorough, but now there’s confusion about how it is taken forward. And everybody is washing their hands over who is responsible.”

A local official said the graveyards were owned and managed of the local diocese. “Ultimately it is down to them to choose the path to take. Our role is here to assist them through that process with residents.”

It was also stated there was ample time to consider all the choices. “This concerns decades before it starts to be lost.”

“Currently, there exists no unified opinion on what should be done yet. We need good local conversations to discover the appropriate solutions for each village.”

The prospect of the loss of the churches and graveyards was described as one of “immense sorrow for the local community,” but church representatives also spoke of a doctrine in life after death, offering a theological perspective on the physical disappearance of sacred ground.