🔗 Share this article

Families of people laid to rest in graves at risk from shoreline retreat argue that indecision on how best to address the issue is creating avoidable anguish about the eternal homes of their loved ones.

An Impending Threat to Ancient Graveyards

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

A newly published study on the issue details a range of possible actions, from doing nothing to disinterring bodies and reburying them in more secure locations. Authorities say it is for local people to decide how to proceed.

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

Estimates suggest at least a portion of one churchyard could fall into the waves in the next 80 years, but some residents fear it will happen much sooner. “I think it’s got under 20 years, if you consider what’s happened in the last 30 years,” one said.

Troubled by the Ghosts of Eccles

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

“You could see human remains,” she said. “Some have this romantic idea that people’s remains will just get washed out to the ocean. That is not the case. People will take bones as mementos and go grave robbing looking for valuables. That is completely undignified.”

“I’m worried 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 Soldier's Resting Place in Peril

Further up the coast is situated the grave of a ex-soldier who died while serving abroad. His parent said she lost sleep after discovering her son’s grave might one day be moved.

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

She believes, new interments should stop but says it is premature to disturb existing graves. “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 Certainty

An absence of consensus over the timing and method to tackle the problem has resulted in bereaved families feeling frustrated and anxious.

Several families are calling for additional sea defences to delay the inevitable erosion and to permit funerals to continue for now. Different voices contend the time for moving graves is approaching.

“The situation is very emotive,” said one relative. “The council’s report was thorough, 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 graveyards were owned and managed of the local diocese. “In the end it is down to them to choose the direction to take. We are here to help support them through that journey with residents.”

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

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

The prospect of losing the historic sites was described as one of “profound sadness for the local community,” but faith leaders also referenced a doctrine in resurrection, providing a spiritual viewpoint on the temporal disappearance of hallowed earth.