🔗 Share this article

Families whose relatives laid to rest in resting places vulnerable to shoreline retreat state that indecision on how best to tackle the issue is causing them avoidable anguish about the eternal homes of their loved ones.

A Looming Threat to Ancient Churchyards

Local authorities have singled out three burial grounds in the communities of Happisburgh, Mundesley, and Trimingham as being in danger of being engulfed by the ocean in the coming decades.

A recent report on the situation details a series of options, from taking no action to exhuming remains and reburying them in safer locations. Officials 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. They wanted 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 sea in the next 80 years, but some locals fear it will happen far earlier. “In my view it’s got less than 20 years, if you consider what’s occurred in the last 30 years,” one said.

Troubled by the Ghosts of Eccles

A local business owner remembered a school trip to the neighbouring settlement of Eccles, which has largely vanished into the sea, along with its place of worship and burial ground.

“It was possible to see human remains,” she said. “Certain people hold 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 plundering graves looking for valuables. It’s completely undignified.”

“I’m worried that the identical fate that happened at Eccles will occur at Happisburgh and there’ll be bones on the shore. I would feel appalled by that.”

A Paratrooper's Resting Place in Jeopardy

Further up the coast lies the burial plot of a former paratrooper killed while working overseas. His mother expressed she could not sleep after discovering her son’s grave might one day be moved.

“It truly trouble me to think this won’t be his permanent resting place,” she said. “For us it’s an significant place to go.”

In her view, new interments should cease but says it is premature to exhume existing graves. “What I would choose for now is to take no action and closely monitor, but an timely resolution needs to be made when a tipping point has been attained.”

Seeking Solutions and Clarity

An absence of agreement over when and how to handle the problem has resulted in bereaved families feeling exasperated and anxious.

Several families want additional coastal protections to slow the unavoidable loss and to allow burials to proceed for now. Others argue the time for relocation is approaching.

“It is very emotional,” a family member stated. “The council’s report was really good, but now there’s uncertainty about how it is taken forward. And all parties is avoiding responsibility over who is accountable.”

A local official said the burial sites were owned and managed of the local diocese. “Ultimately it is up to them to choose the path to take. We are here to assist them through that process with communities.”

He added there was ample time to weigh 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 productive local conversations to discover the appropriate 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 church representatives also referenced a doctrine in life after death, providing a theological perspective on the physical loss of sacred ground.