🔗 Share this article

Loved ones whose relatives buried in graves vulnerable to shoreline retreat say that a lack of decision over how to address the problem is creating avoidable anguish concerning the final resting places of their departed family.

An Impending Threat to Ancient Churchyards

The council have singled out three church graveyards in the communities of Happisburgh, Mundesley, and Trimingham as being in danger of being consumed by the sea in the coming decades.

A recent report on the situation sets out a series of possible actions, from doing nothing to exhuming remains and reburying them in more secure sites. Authorities maintain it is for local people to determine how to move forward.

“At the moment 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.”

Estimates indicate at least part of one graveyard could be claimed by the waves in the next 80 years, but some locals worry it will happen far earlier. “I think it’s got under 20 years, if you consider what’s occurred in the last 30 years,” a farmer stated.

Troubled by the Past

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

“You could see people’s bones,” she said. “Some have this idealized notion that people’s remains will just get carried away to the ocean. They won’t. People will collect remains as mementos and go plundering graves in search of treasures. That is completely disrespectful.”

“I fear that the same thing that happened at Eccles will occur at Happisburgh and there’ll be skeletons on the beach. I would feel appalled by that.”

A Soldier's Grave in Jeopardy

Along the shoreline is situated the burial plot of a ex-soldier who died while working overseas. His parent said she could not sleep after discovering her child's final plot might one day be moved.

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

In her view, new interments should stop 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 must be made when a critical moment has been attained.”

Seeking Solutions and Clarity

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

Several families want more coastal protections to delay the inevitable erosion and to permit burials to proceed for now. Different voices contend the time for moving graves is drawing near.

“The situation is very emotional,” a family member stated. “The official study was really good, but now there’s confusion about how it is taken forward. And everybody is avoiding responsibility over who is responsible.”

A local official said the graveyards were under the care of the local diocese. “In the end it is up to them to decide the direction to take. We are here to assist them through that journey with residents.”

He added there was time to weigh all the options. “This concerns many years before it begins getting lost.”

“Currently, there exists no common view on what should happen yet. It requires good community discussions to discover the right solutions for each village.”

The prospect of the loss of the churches and graveyards was described as one of “profound sorrow for the area,” but church representatives also referenced a doctrine in life after death, providing a spiritual perspective on the temporal disappearance of sacred ground.