🔗 Share this article

Families whose relatives buried in graves at risk from coastal erosion state that indecision on how best to address the problem is causing them unnecessary distress about the eternal homes of their loved ones.

A Looming Threat to Historic Churchyards

The council have singled out three burial grounds in the communities of Happisburgh, Mundesley, and Trimingham as being in danger of being consumed by the ocean in the next few generations.

A newly published study on the situation details a series of options, from doing nothing to exhuming remains and reburying them in safer locations. Officials maintain it is for local people to decide how to proceed.

“At the moment we’re in limbo. It upsets me. My parents intended this to serve as their last home, but it won't be because of the encroaching sea.”

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

Haunted by the Ghosts of Eccles

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

“It was possible to see human remains,” she said. “Some have this idealized notion that people’s remains will just get washed out to sea. That is not the case. People will collect remains as mementos and go grave robbing looking for valuables. It’s completely disrespectful.”

“I’m worried that the same thing that happened at Eccles will occur at Happisburgh and there’ll be skeletons on the shore. I’d be appalled by that.”

A Paratrooper's Grave in Peril

Further up the coast is situated the burial plot of a former paratrooper killed while working overseas. His mother said she lost sleep after discovering her child's grave might one day be relocated.

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

She believes, new interments should stop 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 early decision must be made when a tipping point has been reached.”

Seeking Solutions and Clarity

An absence of consensus over when and how to handle the challenge has resulted in grieving relatives feeling exasperated and anxious.

Several families want more coastal protections to slow the inevitable erosion and to permit burials to proceed for now. Different voices contend the moment for relocation is approaching.

“The situation is very emotional,” a family member stated. “The official study was thorough, but now there’s confusion about how it is implemented. And everybody is avoiding responsibility over who is accountable.”

A coastal manager confirmed the graveyards were owned and managed of the local diocese. “In the end it is up to them to choose the path to take. Our role is here to assist them through that journey with communities.”

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

“There is no common view on what should happen yet. It requires productive community discussions to discover the appropriate solutions for each community.”

The prospect of losing the churches and graveyards was described as one of “immense sadness for the area,” but faith leaders also spoke of a belief in resurrection, providing a spiritual perspective on the physical disappearance of sacred ground.