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Families of people buried in resting places at risk from shoreline retreat state that indecision over how to tackle the issue is creating avoidable anguish about the final resting places of their loved ones.

An Impending Danger to Ancient Churchyards

Local authorities have identified three burial grounds in the communities of Happisburgh, Mundesley, and Trimingham as being at risk of being consumed by the sea in the next few generations.

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

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

Estimates indicate at least a portion of one graveyard could fall into the sea in the next 80 years, but some residents fear it will happen far earlier. “I think it’s got less than 20 years, if you consider what’s occurred in the last 30 years,” one said.

Troubled by the Past

One resident recalled a childhood visit to the nearby settlement of Eccles, which has almost entirely disappeared into the water, along with its church and graveyard.

“You could see people’s bones,” she said. “Some have this idealized notion that people’s remains will just get carried away to sea. They won’t. People will take bones as mementos and go grave robbing looking for valuables. It’s completely undignified.”

“I’m worried that the same thing that happened at Eccles will occur here and there’ll be bones on the shore. I would feel disgusted by that.”

A Paratrooper's Resting Place in Peril

Further up the shoreline is situated the grave of a former paratrooper killed while working overseas. His parent expressed she lost sleep after learning her son’s final plot might one day be relocated.

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

In her view, new burials should stop but says it is too soon to exhume current plots. “What I would choose for now is to do nothing and closely monitor, but an early decision needs to be made when a tipping point has been reached.”

Searching for Solutions and Certainty

The lack of agreement over the timing and method to tackle the challenge has left bereaved families feeling exasperated and worried.

Some want additional coastal protections to delay the inevitable erosion and to allow burials to continue for now. Others contend the time for moving graves is drawing near.

“It is very emotional,” said one relative. “The council’s report was thorough, but now there’s uncertainty about how it is implemented. And all parties is avoiding responsibility over who is responsible.”

A coastal manager said the graveyards were under the care of the church authorities. “Ultimately it is up to them to choose the direction to take. We are here to assist them through that process with communities.”

It was also stated there was ample time to consider all the choices. “We are talking decades before it starts to be lost.”

“Currently, there exists no common view on what should be done yet. It requires good local conversations to discover the right solutions for each community.”

The prospect of the loss of the churches and graveyards was described as one of “immense sadness for the area,” but church representatives also spoke of a belief in life after death, providing a spiritual perspective on the temporal disappearance of hallowed earth.