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Loved ones of people buried in resting places vulnerable to coastal erosion state that indecision over how to address the problem is causing them unnecessary distress about the final resting places of their departed family.

An Impending Danger to Historic Graveyards

Local authorities have identified three church graveyards in the communities of Happisburgh, Trimingham, and Mundesley as being in danger of being swallowed by the ocean in the next few generations.

A newly published study on the situation details a series of options, from doing nothing to exhuming remains and relocating them in safer sites. Officials maintain it is for local people to decide how to move forward.

“Right now we’re in limbo. It causes me distress. My parents wanted this to serve as their final resting place, but it won't be because of the sea.”

Estimates indicate at least a portion of one graveyard 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 less than 20 years, if you consider what’s occurred in the last 30 years,” one said.

Haunted by the Ghosts of Eccles

A local business owner recalled a school trip to the nearby settlement of Eccles, which has largely vanished into the sea, including its place of worship and burial ground.

“You could see human remains,” she said. “Certain people hold this romantic idea that people’s remains will just get carried away to sea. That is not the case. Individuals will collect remains as souvenirs 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’d be appalled by that.”

A Paratrooper's Resting Place in Peril

Further up the shoreline is situated the grave of a ex-soldier who died while working overseas. His parent expressed she lost sleep after discovering her child's grave might one day be relocated.

“It truly trouble 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 burials should stop but says it is too soon to exhume current plots. “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 Solutions and Clarity

An absence of consensus over the timing and method to tackle the problem has resulted in grieving relatives feeling exasperated and worried.

Several families want more sea defences to slow the unavoidable loss and to permit burials to proceed for now. Different voices argue the moment for moving graves is drawing near.

“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 avoiding responsibility over who is accountable.”

A local official confirmed the graveyards were under the care of the local diocese. “In the end it is down to them to decide the path to take. Our role is here to help support them through that journey with communities.”

He added there was ample time to weigh all the choices. “We are talking decades before it begins getting lost.”

“There is no common view on what should be done yet. It requires productive local conversations to discover the appropriate answers for each community.”

The prospect of the loss of the historic sites was described as one of “immense sorrow for the local community,” but church representatives also spoke of a doctrine in life after death, offering a spiritual perspective on the physical disappearance of hallowed earth.