🔗 Share this article

Loved ones of people laid to rest in resting places at risk from coastal erosion state that indecision over how to tackle the problem is creating unnecessary distress concerning the final resting places of their departed family.

An Impending Danger to Historic Graveyards

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

A newly published study on the issue sets out a range of options, from doing nothing to exhuming remains and reburying them in safer locations. Officials maintain it is for local people 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 churchyard could fall into the waves in the next 80 years, but some residents fear it will happen much sooner. “In my view 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

One resident remembered a school trip to the nearby settlement of Eccles, which has largely disappeared into the sea, including its place of worship and burial ground.

“You could see people’s bones,” she said. “Certain people hold this romantic idea that the deceased will just get washed out to sea. They won’t. People will collect remains as mementos and go plundering graves in search of valuables. That is completely disrespectful.”

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

A Paratrooper's Resting Place in Peril

Further up the shoreline lies the grave of a ex-soldier who died while working abroad. His mother said she lost sleep after discovering her son’s grave might one day be relocated.

“It does trouble me to consider this may not remain his permanent resting place,” she said. “To our family it’s an important site to visit.”

She believes, new interments should stop but says it is premature to disturb current plots. “My preference for now is to do nothing and watch carefully, but an timely resolution needs to be made when a critical moment has been reached.”

Seeking Answers and Clarity

The lack of consensus over the timing and method to handle the problem has left bereaved families feeling exasperated and worried.

Some want additional coastal protections to slow the unavoidable loss and to permit burials to proceed for now. Different voices argue the moment for relocation is drawing near.

“The situation 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 responsible.”

A local official said the burial sites were owned and managed of the church authorities. “In the end it is down to them to choose the path to take. We are here to assist them through that process with communities.”

It was also stated there was ample time to weigh all the choices. “We are talking decades before it begins getting lost.”

“Currently, there exists no common view on what should happen yet. We need productive local conversations to find the right solutions for each village.”

The prospect of losing the historic sites was labeled one of “immense sorrow for the local community,” but faith leaders also referenced a doctrine in resurrection, providing a theological perspective on the physical disappearance of hallowed earth.