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Families of people buried in resting places at risk from shoreline retreat state that indecision over how to address the issue is causing them avoidable anguish about the final resting places 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 in danger of being swallowed by the ocean in the coming decades.

A newly published study on the issue details a series of possible actions, from taking no action to disinterring bodies and relocating them in safer locations. Authorities maintain it is for local people to decide how to move forward.

“Right now we’re in a state of uncertainty. It upsets me. My parents intended this to be 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 fear it will happen much sooner. “In my view it’s got less than 20 years, if you consider what’s happened in the last 30 years,” one said.

Troubled by the Ghosts of Eccles

A local business owner remembered a childhood visit to the nearby village of Eccles, which has almost entirely vanished into the sea, along with its place of worship and burial ground.

“It was possible to see people’s bones,” she said. “Some have this romantic idea that the deceased will just get washed out to the ocean. That is not the case. People will take bones as souvenirs and go grave robbing in search of valuables. That is completely undignified.”

“I’m worried that the identical fate that happened at Eccles will happen at Happisburgh and there’ll be bones on the beach. I’d be disgusted by that.”

A Soldier's Resting Place in Jeopardy

Further up the shoreline is situated the burial plot of a former paratrooper killed while working overseas. His mother said she could not sleep after learning her son’s final plot might one day be relocated.

“It truly trouble me to think this may not remain his lasting resting place,” she said. “To our family it’s an important site to visit.”

She believes, new burials should stop but says it is premature to exhume existing graves. “My preference for now is to take no action and watch carefully, but an early decision needs to be made when a critical moment has been attained.”

Seeking Answers and Clarity

The lack of agreement over the timing and method to tackle the problem has left bereaved families feeling frustrated and anxious.

Several families want additional sea defences to slow the inevitable erosion and to allow funerals to continue for now. Different voices argue the moment for relocation is approaching.

“It is very emotional,” a family member stated. “The official study was thorough, but now there’s uncertainty 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. “Ultimately it is up to them to choose the path to take. Our role is here to help support them through that process with communities.”

He added there was time to weigh all the choices. “We are talking decades before it starts to be lost.”

“There is no common view on what should happen yet. We need good local conversations to discover the right answers for each village.”

The possibility of the loss of the historic sites was labeled one of “immense sorrow for the area,” but faith leaders also referenced a belief in resurrection, providing a theological perspective on the temporal loss of sacred ground.