🔗 Share this article

Loved ones of people buried in resting places vulnerable to shoreline retreat state that a lack of decision on how best to address the issue is causing them unnecessary distress about the final resting places of their loved ones.

A Looming Threat to Historic Graveyards

The council have identified three burial grounds in the villages of Happisburgh, Mundesley, and Trimingham as being in danger of being engulfed by the ocean in the next few generations.

A recent report on the situation details a series of options, from doing nothing to exhuming remains and reburying them in safer locations. Officials say it is for local people to determine how to proceed.

“At the moment we’re in a state of uncertainty. It causes me distress. They wanted this to serve as their last home, but it won't be because of the encroaching sea.”

Projections suggest at least part of one churchyard could fall into the waves in the next 80 years, but some residents worry it will happen much sooner. “I think it’s got under 20 years, if you consider what’s happened in the last 30 years,” one said.

Troubled by the Ghosts of Eccles

One resident remembered a school trip to the nearby village of Eccles, which has almost entirely disappeared into the sea, along with its place of worship and burial ground.

“It was possible to see people’s bones,” she said. “Certain people hold this idealized notion that people’s remains will just get carried away to the ocean. That is not the case. Individuals will collect remains as souvenirs and go grave robbing looking for valuables. It’s completely undignified.”

“I’m worried that the identical fate that befell at Eccles will occur at Happisburgh and there’ll be skeletons on the shore. I would feel appalled by that.”

A Soldier's Resting Place in Jeopardy

Further up the coast lies the grave of a former paratrooper who died while working overseas. His parent expressed she could not sleep after learning her child's grave might one day be relocated.

“It truly trouble me to consider this won’t be his permanent home,” she said. “To our family it’s an significant place to go.”

She believes, new burials should stop but says it is too soon to exhume existing graves. “What I would choose for now is to do nothing and closely monitor, but an early decision needs to be made when a tipping point has been attained.”

Searching for Solutions and Clarity

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

Several families want additional coastal protections to delay the inevitable erosion and to allow funerals to continue for now. Different voices argue the time for relocation is approaching.

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

A local official confirmed the graveyards were under the care of the local diocese. “Ultimately it is up to them to decide the path to take. We are here to assist them through that process with communities.”

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

“Currently, there exists no common view on what should happen yet. It requires productive local conversations to discover the right answers for each village.”

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