🔗 Share this article

Loved ones of people laid to rest in resting places at risk from coastal erosion say that a lack of decision on how best to tackle the problem is causing them unnecessary distress about the eternal homes of their departed family.

A Looming Danger to Historic Churchyards

Local authorities have singled out three church graveyards in the communities of Happisburgh, Mundesley, and Trimingham as being at risk of being consumed by the ocean in the next few generations.

A newly published study on the issue sets out a range of possible actions, from taking no action to exhuming remains and relocating them in more secure sites. Officials say it is for local people to decide how to move forward.

“Right now 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 a portion of one churchyard could be claimed by the sea in the next 80 years, but some residents worry 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,” a farmer stated.

Haunted by the Past

A local business owner remembered a school trip to the neighbouring settlement of Eccles, which has almost entirely vanished into the sea, along with its church and graveyard.

“It was possible to see people’s bones,” she said. “Certain people hold this idealized notion that people’s remains will just get carried away to sea. That is not the case. Individuals will take bones as mementos and go grave robbing looking for valuables. It’s completely undignified.”

“I fear that the identical fate that befell at Eccles will occur at Happisburgh and there’ll be bones on the beach. I’d be disgusted by that.”

A Soldier's Resting Place in Peril

Along the shoreline is situated the grave of a former paratrooper killed while serving overseas. His parent expressed she could not sleep after learning her son’s final plot might one day be moved.

“It does disturb me to consider this won’t be his lasting resting place,” she said. “To our family it’s an significant site to visit.”

She believes, new interments should cease but says it is premature to disturb existing graves. “What I would choose for now is to take no action and closely monitor, but an early decision needs to be made when a tipping point has been attained.”

Seeking Answers and Clarity

The lack of consensus over the timing and method to tackle the problem has left grieving relatives feeling exasperated and anxious.

Some want additional sea defences to slow the inevitable erosion and to permit burials to continue for now. Others contend the time for relocation is approaching.

“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 confirmed the burial sites were owned and managed of the local diocese. “Ultimately it is down to them to choose the direction to take. We are here to assist them through that process with residents.”

It was also stated there was ample time to weigh all the options. “We are talking 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 appropriate solutions for each community.”

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