🔗 Share this article

Loved ones whose relatives buried in resting places at risk from shoreline retreat argue that indecision on how best to tackle the issue is creating unnecessary distress concerning the eternal homes of their departed family.

An Impending Threat to Historic Churchyards

Local authorities have identified three burial grounds in the communities of Happisburgh, Trimingham, and Mundesley as being in danger of being engulfed by the sea in the next few generations.

A newly published study on the issue sets out a series of possible actions, from taking no action to disinterring bodies and relocating them in more secure sites. Authorities maintain it is for local people to decide how to proceed.

“At the moment we’re in limbo. It causes me distress. They wanted this to serve as their final resting place, 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 far earlier. “I think it’s got less than 20 years, if you consider what’s occurred in the last 30 years,” one said.

Haunted by the Past

One resident recalled a childhood visit to the neighbouring settlement 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 people’s remains will just get carried away to the ocean. They won’t. Individuals will collect remains as souvenirs and go grave robbing looking for valuables. That is completely undignified.”

“I fear that the same thing that befell 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 burial plot of a former paratrooper killed while working abroad. His parent expressed she lost sleep after learning her son’s final plot might one day be relocated.

“It does disturb me to consider this may not remain his permanent home,” she said. “To our family it’s an important place to go.”

In her view, new burials should stop but says it is too soon to exhume current plots. “My preference for now is to do nothing and closely monitor, but an early decision needs to be made when a tipping point has been attained.”

Seeking Answers and Clarity

An absence of consensus over when and how to handle the problem has left bereaved families feeling exasperated and anxious.

Several families want additional coastal protections to slow the unavoidable loss and to permit funerals to proceed for now. Different voices argue the moment for moving graves is approaching.

“It is very emotional,” a family member stated. “The official study was really good, but now there’s confusion about how it is implemented. And everybody is washing their hands over who is responsible.”

A coastal manager said the burial sites were under the care of the church authorities. “Ultimately it is up to them to choose the path to take. We are here to help support them through that process with communities.”

He added there was time to weigh all the choices. “This concerns decades before it starts to be lost.”

“There is no unified opinion on what should be done yet. It requires good community discussions to find the appropriate solutions for each village.”

The prospect of the loss of the historic sites was described as one of “immense sadness for the area,” but church representatives also spoke of a doctrine in resurrection, offering a spiritual viewpoint on the temporal disappearance of sacred ground.