🔗 Share this article

Loved ones of people laid to rest in resting places at risk from coastal erosion say that indecision over how to address the issue is creating avoidable anguish concerning the final resting places of their loved ones.

A Looming Danger to Historic Churchyards

The council have identified three church graveyards in the villages of Happisburgh, Mundesley, and Trimingham as being in danger of being engulfed by the ocean in the coming decades.

A newly published study on the issue details a series of possible actions, from doing nothing to exhuming remains and relocating them in more secure sites. Officials 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. My parents wanted this to serve as their final resting place, but it won't be because of the sea.”

Projections indicate at least a portion of one churchyard could fall into the sea in the next 80 years, but some locals worry it will happen far earlier. “In my view it’s got less than 20 years, if you look at what’s happened in the last 30 years,” one said.

Haunted by the Past

A local business owner recalled a school trip to the nearby village of Eccles, which has largely vanished into the water, along with its church and graveyard.

“You could see human remains,” she said. “Certain people hold this idealized notion that the deceased will just get carried away to the ocean. That is not the case. People will collect remains as souvenirs and go grave robbing in search of valuables. It’s completely disrespectful.”

“I fear that the same thing that befell at Eccles will happen here and there’ll be skeletons on the beach. I’d be appalled by that.”

A Paratrooper's Grave in Jeopardy

Further up the shoreline is situated the grave of a ex-soldier who died while working abroad. His parent expressed she lost sleep after learning her son’s grave might one day be moved.

“It does trouble me to think this won’t be his lasting resting place,” she said. “For us it’s an important site to visit.”

She believes, new burials should cease but says it is too soon to exhume existing graves. “What I would choose for now is to take no action and watch carefully, but an timely resolution needs to be made when a tipping point has been attained.”

Seeking Answers and Clarity

An absence of consensus over the timing and method to tackle the problem has resulted in grieving relatives feeling frustrated and worried.

Several families want more coastal protections to delay the unavoidable loss and to allow funerals to continue for now. Others contend the time for moving graves is drawing near.

“It is very emotive,” a family member stated. “The official study was really good, but now there’s uncertainty about how it is taken forward. And everybody is washing their hands over who is accountable.”

A coastal manager confirmed the burial sites were owned and managed of the local diocese. “In the end it is down to them to decide the direction to take. We are here to assist them through that process with communities.”

He added there was time to weigh all the options. “We are talking many years before it begins getting lost.”

“Currently, there exists no common view on what should happen yet. We need productive community discussions to discover the appropriate solutions for each community.”

The prospect of losing the churches and graveyards was labeled one of “profound sorrow for the local community,” but faith leaders also referenced a doctrine in resurrection, offering a spiritual viewpoint on the temporal disappearance of hallowed earth.