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Loved ones whose relatives laid to rest in graves at risk from shoreline retreat say that a lack of decision over how to address the issue is creating avoidable anguish concerning the eternal homes of their departed family.

A Looming Threat to Ancient Churchyards

The council have identified three burial grounds in the communities of Happisburgh, Trimingham, and Mundesley as being at risk of being consumed by the ocean in the coming decades.

A newly published study on the situation sets out a range of possible actions, from doing nothing to exhuming remains and reburying them in safer sites. Authorities say it is for local people to determine how to proceed.

“At the moment we’re in limbo. It upsets me. My parents intended this to be their last home, but it isn’t going to be because of the encroaching sea.”

Projections suggest at least part of one churchyard could fall into the sea in the next 80 years, but some residents fear it will happen far earlier. “In my view it’s got under 20 years, if you consider what’s happened in the last 30 years,” one said.

Troubled by the Past

A local business owner recalled a childhood visit to the nearby settlement of Eccles, which has largely disappeared into the sea, along with its place of worship and burial ground.

“You could see human remains,” she said. “Certain people hold this romantic idea that the deceased will just get carried away to sea. That is not the case. Individuals will take bones as souvenirs and go grave robbing looking for treasures. It’s completely disrespectful.”

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

A Paratrooper's Resting Place in Jeopardy

Further up the coast lies the grave of a ex-soldier who died while working overseas. His mother expressed she could not sleep after discovering her child's grave might one day be moved.

“It does trouble me to think this may not remain his lasting resting place,” she said. “For us it’s an important place to go.”

She believes, new interments should cease but says it is premature to disturb existing graves. “What I would choose for now is to take no action and watch carefully, but an early decision needs to be made when a critical moment has been reached.”

Seeking Solutions and Certainty

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

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

“It is very emotional,” a family member stated. “The council’s report was thorough, but now there’s confusion about how it is taken forward. And everybody 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 up 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 weigh all the options. “We are talking decades before it begins getting lost.”

“Currently, there exists no unified opinion on what should be done yet. We need productive local conversations to find the appropriate 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 church representatives also referenced a doctrine in resurrection, offering a theological viewpoint on the temporal loss of hallowed earth.