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Families of people buried in graves vulnerable to coastal erosion say that a lack of decision on how best to address the issue is creating unnecessary distress concerning the final resting places of their departed family.

An Impending Threat to Historic Churchyards

The council have singled out three burial grounds in the communities of Happisburgh, Mundesley, and Trimingham as being at risk of being consumed by the sea in the coming decades.

A recent report on the situation details a range of options, from doing nothing to exhuming remains and reburying them in more secure sites. Officials 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 last home, but it won't be because of the sea.”

Projections indicate at least part of one churchyard could be claimed by the waves 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,” one said.

Haunted by the Ghosts of Eccles

One resident remembered a childhood visit to the nearby settlement of Eccles, which has largely disappeared into the water, along with its church and graveyard.

“It was possible to see human remains,” she said. “Certain people hold this idealized notion that people’s remains will just get washed out to sea. They won’t. People will take bones as mementos and go plundering graves in search of valuables. That is completely undignified.”

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

A Paratrooper's Grave in Peril

Along the coast is situated the grave of a ex-soldier killed while serving abroad. His parent said she could not sleep after discovering her child's grave might one day be moved.

“It does disturb me to think this won’t be his permanent home,” she said. “For us it’s an important place to go.”

In her view, new burials should cease but says it is premature to disturb current plots. “What I would choose for now is to do nothing and closely monitor, but an early decision needs to be made when a tipping point has been attained.”

Searching for Solutions and Clarity

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

Several families want additional coastal protections to delay the inevitable erosion and to allow funerals to proceed for now. Others contend the time for relocation is drawing near.

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

A local official said the graveyards were owned and managed of the local diocese. “Ultimately it is down to them to decide the direction to take. We are here to help support them through that process with communities.”

He added there was time to consider all the choices. “This concerns many years before it starts to be lost.”

“There is no unified opinion on what should happen yet. It requires productive local conversations to find the right solutions for each community.”

The possibility of losing the historic sites was described as one of “immense sadness for the local community,” but church representatives also spoke of a doctrine in resurrection, providing a theological viewpoint on the temporal disappearance of sacred ground.