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Families whose relatives laid to rest in resting places vulnerable to coastal erosion state that a lack of decision on how best to address the problem is creating unnecessary distress about the final resting places of their departed family.

An Impending Danger to Ancient Graveyards

The council 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 recent report on the issue sets out a series of possible actions, from doing nothing to exhuming remains and relocating them in safer locations. Authorities maintain it is for local people to determine how to proceed.

“At the moment 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 encroaching sea.”

Estimates indicate at least a portion of one churchyard could be claimed by the sea in the next 80 years, but some locals fear it will happen far earlier. “In my view it’s got less than 20 years, if you consider what’s occurred in the last 30 years,” one said.

Troubled by the Ghosts of Eccles

A local business owner recalled a childhood visit to the neighbouring settlement of Eccles, which has largely disappeared into the water, including its place of worship and burial ground.

“You could see people’s bones,” she said. “Certain people hold this idealized notion that the deceased will just get carried away to the ocean. They won’t. Individuals will collect remains as mementos and go grave robbing looking for valuables. That is completely undignified.”

“I fear that the identical fate that happened at Eccles will occur at Happisburgh and there’ll be skeletons on the beach. I would feel appalled by that.”

A Soldier's Grave in Jeopardy

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

“It truly trouble 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 premature to exhume current plots. “What I would choose for now is to take no action and watch carefully, but an timely resolution must be made when a critical moment has been attained.”

Searching for Solutions and Certainty

An absence of agreement over when and how to handle the challenge has left grieving relatives feeling frustrated and worried.

Several families want more coastal protections to delay the unavoidable loss and to permit burials to proceed for now. Different voices argue the time for relocation is approaching.

“It is very emotive,” a family member stated. “The council’s report was thorough, but now there’s confusion about how it is implemented. And everybody is avoiding responsibility over who is responsible.”

A coastal manager confirmed the burial sites were owned and managed 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 consider all the choices. “This concerns decades before it begins getting lost.”

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

The possibility of losing the churches and graveyards was described as one of “profound sorrow for the local community,” but church representatives also spoke of a doctrine in resurrection, offering a spiritual viewpoint on the temporal loss of sacred ground.