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Loved ones of people buried in graves vulnerable to shoreline retreat state that a lack of decision over how to address the issue is causing them avoidable anguish about the final resting places of their departed family.

An Impending Threat to Ancient Graveyards

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

A newly published study on the situation details a range of possible actions, from doing nothing to exhuming remains and relocating them in more secure sites. Officials maintain it is for the community to decide how to proceed.

“At the moment we’re in a state of uncertainty. It upsets me. They intended this to serve as their final resting place, but it isn’t going to 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 far earlier. “I think it’s got under 20 years, if you consider what’s occurred in the last 30 years,” a farmer stated.

Haunted by the Past

One resident remembered a childhood visit to the nearby settlement of Eccles, which has largely disappeared into the sea, along with its place of worship and burial ground.

“It was possible to see people’s bones,” she said. “Certain people hold this romantic idea that the deceased will just get carried away to the ocean. That is not the case. Individuals will collect remains as mementos and go plundering graves in search of valuables. It’s completely undignified.”

“I fear that the same thing that befell at Eccles will happen at Happisburgh and there’ll be skeletons on the shore. I would feel appalled by that.”

A Paratrooper's Grave in Peril

Along the coast lies the burial plot of a ex-soldier killed while serving abroad. His parent said she could not sleep after discovering her child's final plot might one day be relocated.

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

She believes, new burials should cease but says it is too soon to disturb existing graves. “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 attained.”

Searching for Solutions and Certainty

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

Some are calling for additional coastal protections to delay the inevitable erosion and to allow funerals to proceed for now. Others argue the moment for moving graves is approaching.

“It is very emotive,” said one relative. “The official study was thorough, but now there’s uncertainty about how it is taken forward. And everybody is washing their hands over who is responsible.”

A coastal manager confirmed the graveyards were under the care of the local diocese. “In the end it is up to them to choose the path to take. Our role is here to help support them through that process with communities.”

It was also stated there was ample time to consider 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 productive local conversations to find the right answers for each community.”

The prospect of the loss of the churches and graveyards 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 physical disappearance of sacred ground.