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Loved ones whose relatives buried in graves at risk from shoreline retreat say that a lack of decision over how to tackle the issue is causing them avoidable anguish about the eternal homes of their departed family.

A Looming Danger to Historic Churchyards

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

A recent report on the issue sets out a series of options, from doing nothing to exhuming remains and reburying them in more secure locations. Authorities say it is for the community to determine how to move forward.

“Right now we’re in limbo. It causes me distress. My parents intended this to serve as their final resting place, but it won't be because of the encroaching sea.”

Estimates suggest at least a portion of one graveyard could fall into the waves in the next 80 years, but some residents worry 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 Past

One resident remembered a childhood visit to the neighbouring village of Eccles, which has almost entirely vanished into the sea, including its place of worship and burial ground.

“You could 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 take bones as mementos and go plundering graves in search of valuables. It’s completely undignified.”

“I’m worried 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

Along the shoreline is situated the burial plot of a former paratrooper who died while serving overseas. His mother expressed she lost sleep after discovering her son’s grave might one day be relocated.

“It does disturb me to think this may not remain his permanent home,” she said. “To our family it’s an significant place to go.”

In her view, new interments should stop but says it is premature to disturb existing graves. “My preference for now is to do nothing and closely monitor, but an early decision must be made when a tipping point has been reached.”

Searching for Solutions and Certainty

An absence of consensus over the timing and method to handle the problem has resulted in grieving relatives feeling frustrated and anxious.

Some want additional sea defences to slow the inevitable erosion and to permit funerals to proceed for now. Others argue the time for moving graves is approaching.

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

A local official confirmed the burial sites were under the care of the local diocese. “In the end it is up to them to choose the direction to take. We are here to assist them through that journey with communities.”

It was also stated there was time to consider all the options. “We are talking decades before it starts to be lost.”

“Currently, there exists no common view on what should happen yet. We need good local conversations to find the appropriate solutions for each village.”

The possibility of the loss of the historic sites was labeled one of “immense sadness for the area,” but church representatives also referenced a doctrine in resurrection, offering a spiritual perspective on the temporal disappearance of sacred ground.