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Loved ones of people buried in resting places vulnerable to coastal erosion say that a lack of decision on how best to address the problem is creating avoidable anguish about the eternal homes of their departed family.

An Impending Danger to Historic Graveyards

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

A recent report on the situation details a range of possible actions, from taking no action to exhuming remains and reburying them in more secure sites. Authorities maintain it is for local people to decide how to proceed.

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

Projections indicate at least part of one graveyard could fall into the sea in the next 80 years, but some residents fear it will happen much sooner. “I think it’s got less than 20 years, if you consider what’s happened in the last 30 years,” a farmer stated.

Troubled by the Ghosts of Eccles

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

“You could see human remains,” she said. “Certain people hold this romantic idea that people’s remains will just get washed out to sea. That is not the case. Individuals will collect remains as mementos and go plundering graves in search of treasures. That is completely undignified.”

“I fear that the same thing that befell at Eccles will occur at Happisburgh and there’ll be skeletons on the shore. I would feel disgusted by that.”

A Soldier's Resting Place in Peril

Along the coast is situated the burial plot of a former paratrooper killed while working abroad. His mother expressed she could not sleep after learning her child's final plot 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 important site to visit.”

In her view, new burials should stop but says it is premature to disturb existing graves. “What I would choose for now is to do nothing and watch carefully, but an early decision must be made when a tipping point has been attained.”

Searching for Solutions and Clarity

An absence of agreement over the timing and method to handle the problem has left grieving relatives feeling exasperated and anxious.

Several families want more sea defences to slow the inevitable erosion and to allow burials to continue for now. Others contend the time for moving graves is drawing near.

“The situation is very emotional,” a family member stated. “The official study was really good, but now there’s uncertainty about how it is taken forward. And all parties is washing their hands over who is responsible.”

A local official confirmed the graveyards were owned and managed of the church authorities. “In the end it is up to them to choose the direction to take. We are here to help support them through that process with communities.”

He added there was time to weigh all the choices. “This concerns decades before it starts to be lost.”

“There is no common view on what should be done yet. It requires productive local conversations to find the right answers for each community.”

The possibility of the loss of the churches and graveyards was described as one of “immense sadness for the local community,” but church representatives also referenced a belief in life after death, providing a spiritual viewpoint on the temporal disappearance of sacred ground.