🔗 Share this article

Loved ones whose relatives buried in resting places at risk from shoreline retreat argue that indecision on how best to address the issue is causing them unnecessary distress about the final resting places of their departed family.

A Looming Danger to Ancient Churchyards

The council have identified three church graveyards in the communities of Happisburgh, Trimingham, and Mundesley as being in danger of being swallowed by the sea in the next few generations.

A newly published study on the issue sets out a range of possible actions, from taking no action to exhuming remains and relocating them in safer sites. Officials maintain it is for local people to determine how to proceed.

“At the moment we’re in a state of uncertainty. It causes me distress. My parents wanted this to be their last home, but it won't be because of the sea.”

Estimates suggest at least a portion of one churchyard could fall into the sea in the next 80 years, but some residents worry it will happen much sooner. “In my view it’s got less than 20 years, if you look at 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 village of Eccles, which has almost entirely disappeared 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 the deceased will just get washed out to the ocean. That is not the case. People will take bones as souvenirs and go plundering graves in search of treasures. That is completely undignified.”

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

A Soldier's Grave in Peril

Along the shoreline lies the burial plot of a ex-soldier who died while working abroad. His mother said she could not sleep after learning her child's final plot might one day be relocated.

“It truly disturb me to consider this may not remain his permanent resting place,” she said. “To our family it’s an significant place to go.”

She believes, new interments should cease but says it is too soon to exhume current plots. “My preference for now is to do nothing and watch carefully, but an early decision needs to 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 resulted in bereaved families feeling exasperated and worried.

Some are calling for additional sea defences to delay the unavoidable loss and to permit funerals to proceed for now. Others contend the time for moving graves is drawing near.

“It is very emotional,” a family member stated. “The official study was really good, but now there’s confusion about how it is taken forward. And all parties is washing their hands over who is accountable.”

A coastal manager said the graveyards were under the care of the church authorities. “Ultimately it is up to them to choose the path to take. Our role is here to help support them through that process with communities.”

He added there was ample time to weigh all the options. “We are talking many years before it starts to be lost.”

“Currently, there exists no common view on what should happen yet. It requires productive community discussions to discover the appropriate solutions for each village.”

The possibility of losing the churches and graveyards was described as one of “immense sadness for the area,” but faith leaders also spoke of a doctrine in life after death, offering a theological viewpoint on the physical loss of sacred ground.