🔗 Share this article

Families whose relatives laid to rest in resting places vulnerable to coastal erosion argue that a lack of decision over how to tackle the issue is creating unnecessary distress concerning the final resting places of their loved ones.

An Impending Threat to Ancient Graveyards

Local authorities have singled out three church graveyards in the villages of Happisburgh, Mundesley, and Trimingham as being in danger of being consumed by the ocean in the coming decades.

A newly published study on the issue details a range of options, from taking no action to exhuming remains and reburying them in more secure sites. Authorities maintain it is for the community to determine how to proceed.

“At the moment we’re in a state of uncertainty. It causes me distress. My parents intended this to be their last home, but it isn’t going to be because of the sea.”

Projections suggest at least a portion of one graveyard could fall into the waves in the next 80 years, but some locals worry it will happen far earlier. “In my view it’s got under 20 years, if you consider what’s occurred in the last 30 years,” one said.

Troubled by the Past

A local business owner remembered a childhood visit to the nearby village of Eccles, which has almost entirely disappeared into the water, including its church and graveyard.

“You could see human remains,” she said. “Some have this idealized notion that the deceased will just get carried away to the ocean. They won’t. Individuals will take bones as mementos and go grave robbing looking for valuables. That is completely disrespectful.”

“I’m worried that the same thing that befell at Eccles will happen at Happisburgh and there’ll be bones on the shore. I would feel appalled by that.”

A Paratrooper's Grave in Jeopardy

Further up the coast is situated the grave of a former paratrooper killed while working abroad. His mother expressed she lost sleep after discovering her son’s final plot might one day be relocated.

“It truly trouble me to consider this won’t be his lasting home,” she said. “For us it’s an important place to go.”

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

Seeking Answers and Certainty

The lack of consensus over when and how to tackle the problem has left grieving relatives feeling exasperated and anxious.

Some are calling for additional sea defences to slow the inevitable erosion and to permit funerals to continue for now. Others argue the time for moving graves is drawing near.

“It is very emotive,” said one relative. “The council’s report was really good, but now there’s uncertainty about how it is taken forward. And everybody is avoiding responsibility over who is accountable.”

A coastal manager said the burial sites were owned and managed of the church authorities. “In the end it is down to them to choose the direction to take. Our role is here to help support them through that process with communities.”

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

“Currently, there exists no unified opinion on what should happen yet. We need productive community discussions to discover the right solutions for each community.”

The prospect of the loss of the churches and graveyards was described as one of “profound sadness for the local community,” but faith leaders also referenced a belief in resurrection, offering a theological perspective on the temporal loss of sacred ground.