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Families of people buried in graves at risk from coastal erosion say that a lack of decision on how best to address the problem is causing them avoidable anguish concerning the final resting places of their departed family.

A Looming Danger to Ancient Graveyards

The council have singled out three church graveyards in the communities of Happisburgh, Trimingham, and Mundesley as being at risk of being engulfed by the ocean in the next few generations.

A newly published study on the issue sets out a range of options, from doing nothing to exhuming remains and relocating them in safer sites. Authorities say it is for the community to determine how to move forward.

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

Projections suggest at least a portion of one churchyard could fall into the waves in the next 80 years, but some locals worry it will happen far earlier. “I think it’s got less than 20 years, if you look at what’s happened in the last 30 years,” a farmer stated.

Troubled by the Ghosts of Eccles

One resident remembered a childhood visit to the nearby village of Eccles, which has largely vanished into the water, including its church and graveyard.

“You could see people’s bones,” she said. “Certain people hold this idealized notion that people’s remains will just get carried away to the ocean. They won’t. People will take bones as mementos and go plundering graves looking for valuables. That is completely disrespectful.”

“I fear that the identical fate that happened at Eccles will happen at Happisburgh and there’ll be bones on the beach. I’d be disgusted by that.”

A Paratrooper's Grave in Peril

Further up the coast is situated the burial plot of a ex-soldier who died while working abroad. His mother expressed she could not sleep after learning her son’s grave might one day be relocated.

“It does trouble me to consider this may not remain his lasting home,” 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 disturb current plots. “What I would choose for now is to do nothing and watch carefully, but an timely resolution must be made when a tipping point has been attained.”

Searching for Answers and Clarity

An absence of agreement over when and how to tackle the challenge has resulted in grieving relatives feeling exasperated and anxious.

Some want more sea defences to slow the inevitable erosion and to permit burials to continue for now. Others argue the moment for relocation is approaching.

“The situation is very emotive,” said one relative. “The official study was really good, but now there’s uncertainty about how it is implemented. And everybody is avoiding responsibility over who is accountable.”

A local official said the graveyards were under the care of the local diocese. “Ultimately it is down to them to decide the direction to take. We are here to assist them through that journey with communities.”

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

“Currently, there exists no unified opinion on what should be done yet. We need good local conversations to discover the right solutions for each community.”

The possibility of the loss of the churches and graveyards was described as one of “immense sorrow for the local community,” but faith leaders also spoke of a doctrine in life after death, providing a spiritual perspective on the temporal loss of sacred ground.