🔗 Share this article

Families of people laid to rest in resting places at risk from shoreline retreat state that indecision on how best to tackle the problem is creating unnecessary distress about the eternal homes of their departed family.

A Looming Threat to Historic Graveyards

Local authorities have identified three church graveyards in the communities of Happisburgh, Trimingham, and Mundesley as being in danger of being engulfed by the sea in the coming decades.

A recent report on the situation sets out a range of possible actions, from doing nothing to exhuming remains and relocating them in safer locations. Officials maintain it is for local people to determine how to proceed.

“Right now we’re in limbo. It causes me distress. My parents intended this to serve as their last home, but it isn’t going to be because of the encroaching sea.”

Estimates suggest at least part of one churchyard could be claimed by the waves in the next 80 years, but some locals fear it will happen far earlier. “I think it’s got less than 20 years, if you look at what’s occurred in the last 30 years,” one said.

Troubled by the Past

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

“You could see people’s bones,” she said. “Certain people hold this romantic idea that people’s remains will just get washed out to the ocean. That is not the case. Individuals will take bones as souvenirs and go plundering graves looking for valuables. It’s completely undignified.”

“I fear that the same thing that befell at Eccles will occur here and there’ll be bones on the shore. I’d be disgusted by that.”

A Soldier's Resting Place in Peril

Further up the shoreline is situated the burial plot of a ex-soldier killed while serving abroad. His parent expressed she could not sleep after learning her child's final plot might one day be relocated.

“It does trouble me to think this may not remain his permanent resting place,” she said. “For us it’s an significant site to visit.”

She believes, new burials should stop but says it is too soon to disturb 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.”

Searching for Answers and Clarity

The lack of agreement over the timing and method to handle the problem has resulted in grieving relatives feeling exasperated and anxious.

Some are calling for additional coastal protections to slow the unavoidable loss and to permit burials to continue for now. Different voices argue the time for moving graves is approaching.

“It is very emotional,” a family member stated. “The council’s report was really good, but now there’s uncertainty about how it is taken forward. And all parties is avoiding responsibility over who is accountable.”

A local official 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. We are here to assist them through that journey with residents.”

He added there was ample time to consider all the options. “This concerns many years before it begins getting lost.”

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

The possibility of losing the churches and graveyards was described as one of “immense sadness for the local community,” but church representatives also referenced a doctrine in life after death, providing a spiritual perspective on the physical disappearance of sacred ground.