🔗 Share this article

Loved ones of people buried in resting places at risk from shoreline retreat state that indecision over how to tackle the issue is creating avoidable anguish about the eternal homes of their loved ones.

A Looming Threat to Ancient Churchyards

The council have singled out three church graveyards in the communities 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 possible actions, from doing nothing to exhuming remains and reburying them in safer sites. Authorities maintain it is for local people to decide how to proceed.

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

Projections suggest at least part of one churchyard could be claimed by the sea in the next 80 years, but some residents worry 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,” one said.

Troubled by the Ghosts of Eccles

A local business owner recalled a school trip to the nearby settlement of Eccles, which has largely vanished into the sea, along with its church and graveyard.

“You could see human remains,” she said. “Some have this romantic idea that people’s remains will just get carried away to sea. That is not the case. People will collect remains as mementos and go grave robbing in search of treasures. That is completely disrespectful.”

“I fear that the same thing that befell at Eccles will occur at Happisburgh and there’ll be skeletons on the shore. I’d be disgusted by that.”

A Soldier's Resting Place in Jeopardy

Along the coast is situated the burial plot of a former paratrooper killed while working abroad. His parent expressed she could not sleep after learning her child's grave might one day be relocated.

“It truly trouble me to think this may not remain his permanent home,” she said. “For us it’s an important site to visit.”

She believes, new interments should cease but says it is too soon to exhume 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 reached.”

Searching for Solutions and Certainty

An absence of consensus over the timing and method to tackle the challenge has left bereaved families feeling exasperated and anxious.

Several families want more coastal protections to slow the unavoidable loss and to allow burials to proceed for now. Others contend the moment for moving graves is drawing near.

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

A coastal manager said the graveyards 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 journey with residents.”

It was also stated there was time to consider all the choices. “This concerns many years 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 answers for each village.”

The prospect of the loss of the churches and graveyards was labeled one of “profound sorrow for the local community,” but faith leaders also spoke of a belief in resurrection, providing a spiritual viewpoint on the physical loss of sacred ground.