🔗 Share this article

Loved ones of people laid to rest in graves vulnerable to shoreline retreat argue that a lack of decision over how to address the problem is creating unnecessary distress concerning the final resting places of their departed family.

An Impending Danger to Historic Churchyards

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

A recent report on the situation sets out a range of possible actions, from taking no action to exhuming remains and relocating them in more secure sites. Authorities say it is for the community to decide how to proceed.

“At the moment we’re in a state of uncertainty. It causes me distress. They intended this to serve as their final resting place, but it isn’t going to be because of the encroaching sea.”

Projections suggest at least a portion of one graveyard could be claimed by the waves in the next 80 years, but some locals fear it will happen much sooner. “I think it’s got under 20 years, if you consider what’s occurred in the last 30 years,” one said.

Haunted by the Ghosts of Eccles

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

“It was possible to see people’s bones,” she said. “Some have this idealized notion that the deceased will just get carried away to sea. They won’t. People will take bones as souvenirs and go grave robbing in search of treasures. It’s completely undignified.”

“I fear that the identical fate that befell at Eccles will happen at Happisburgh and there’ll be skeletons on the beach. I would feel disgusted by that.”

A Paratrooper's Grave in Peril

Along the shoreline lies the grave of a ex-soldier who died while serving overseas. His mother expressed she could not sleep after learning her son’s grave might one day be moved.

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

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

Seeking Solutions and Clarity

An absence of agreement over the timing and method to handle the problem has resulted in grieving relatives feeling exasperated and worried.

Several families want more sea defences to slow the inevitable erosion and to permit funerals to continue for now. Others argue the time for relocation is drawing near.

“It is very emotional,” said one relative. “The official study was really good, but now there’s confusion about how it is taken forward. And everybody is avoiding responsibility over who is accountable.”

A coastal manager 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. Our role is here to help support them through that process with communities.”

He added there was time to consider all the options. “This concerns many years before it begins getting lost.”

“Currently, there exists no common view on what should happen yet. It requires good community discussions to find the appropriate solutions for each community.”

The prospect of losing the historic sites was labeled one of “immense sorrow for the local community,” but faith leaders also spoke of a belief in life after death, providing a spiritual perspective on the temporal loss of sacred ground.