🔗 Share this article

Loved ones of people laid to rest in graves at risk from shoreline retreat say that indecision on how best to address the problem is causing them unnecessary distress concerning the eternal homes of their loved ones.

A Looming Danger to Historic Graveyards

Local authorities have singled out three church graveyards in the communities of Happisburgh, Mundesley, and Trimingham as being at risk of being swallowed by the sea in the coming decades.

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

“At the moment we’re in a state of uncertainty. It upsets me. My parents wanted this to be their final resting place, but it won't be because of the encroaching sea.”

Estimates indicate at least part of one graveyard could fall into the sea in the next 80 years, but some residents worry it will happen far earlier. “In my view it’s got under 20 years, if you look at what’s happened in the last 30 years,” a farmer stated.

Troubled by the Past

A local business owner remembered a school trip to the nearby settlement of Eccles, which has almost entirely disappeared into the sea, along with its church and graveyard.

“It was possible to see human remains,” she said. “Some have this romantic idea that people’s remains will just get washed out to sea. They won’t. People will take bones as souvenirs and go plundering graves looking for valuables. It’s completely undignified.”

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

A Paratrooper's Grave in Jeopardy

Along the coast lies the burial plot of a former paratrooper killed while working abroad. His parent expressed she lost sleep after discovering her child's final plot might one day be moved.

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

She believes, new interments should cease but says it is premature to exhume current plots. “My preference for now is to do nothing and closely monitor, but an timely resolution must be made when a critical moment has been reached.”

Seeking Answers and Clarity

The lack of consensus over the timing and method to handle the challenge has left bereaved families feeling exasperated and worried.

Some are calling for more sea defences to delay the unavoidable loss and to permit funerals to continue for now. Others contend the moment for relocation is approaching.

“It is very emotive,” said one relative. “The official study was thorough, but now there’s confusion about how it is taken forward. And all parties is washing their hands over who is responsible.”

A local official confirmed the graveyards were under the care of the church authorities. “In the end it is down to them to decide the direction to take. We are here to assist them through that journey with communities.”

It was also stated there was ample 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 be done yet. It requires good local conversations to discover the right answers for each community.”

The possibility of the loss of the historic sites was described as one of “profound sorrow for the local community,” but faith leaders also spoke of a doctrine in life after death, providing a theological viewpoint on the physical disappearance of sacred ground.