🔗 Share this article

Families whose relatives laid to rest in graves at risk from shoreline retreat state that a lack of decision over how to tackle the issue is creating avoidable anguish about the eternal homes of their loved ones.

A Looming Danger to Historic Graveyards

Local authorities have singled out three church graveyards in the communities of Happisburgh, Mundesley, and Trimingham as being at risk of being engulfed by the sea in the coming decades.

A newly published study on the issue details a series of options, from doing nothing to exhuming remains and relocating them in safer sites. Authorities say it is for local people to determine how to proceed.

“Right now we’re in a state of uncertainty. It upsets me. They wanted this to be their final resting place, but it isn’t going to be because of the sea.”

Estimates suggest at least a portion of one churchyard could fall into the waves 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.

Troubled by the Past

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

“It was possible to see human remains,” she said. “Certain people hold this romantic idea that people’s remains will just get washed out to the ocean. They won’t. People will collect remains as souvenirs and go grave robbing in search of treasures. It’s completely undignified.”

“I fear that the identical fate that happened at Eccles will happen here and there’ll be bones on the shore. I would feel appalled by that.”

A Soldier's Resting Place in Jeopardy

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

“It does disturb me to think this may not remain his permanent home,” she said. “For us it’s an important site to visit.”

She believes, new interments should cease but says it is premature to exhume current plots. “What I would choose for now is to do nothing and closely monitor, but an timely resolution must be made when a critical moment has been reached.”

Seeking Answers and Certainty

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

Some are calling for more coastal protections to delay the inevitable erosion and to allow 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 thorough, but now there’s uncertainty about how it is taken forward. And everybody is washing their hands over who is responsible.”

A local official confirmed the burial sites were under the care of the church authorities. “In the end it is up to them to decide 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 weigh all the options. “This concerns decades before it begins getting lost.”

“There is no common view on what should happen yet. We need good community discussions to discover the appropriate 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 spoke of a belief in life after death, offering a spiritual perspective on the temporal disappearance of hallowed earth.