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Families of people buried in resting places vulnerable to coastal erosion state that a lack of decision over how to address the problem is causing them avoidable anguish concerning the final resting places of their departed family.

An Impending Danger to Ancient Graveyards

Local authorities have identified three church graveyards in the villages of Happisburgh, Trimingham, and Mundesley as being in danger of being engulfed by the sea in the coming decades.

A recent report on the issue details a series of possible actions, from taking no action to exhuming remains and reburying them in safer sites. Authorities maintain it is for local people to determine how to move forward.

“At the moment we’re in a state of uncertainty. It causes me distress. They wanted this to serve as their final resting place, but it isn’t going to be because of the sea.”

Projections suggest at least part of one churchyard could fall into the sea in the next 80 years, but some residents worry it will happen far earlier. “In my view it’s got under 20 years, if you consider what’s occurred in the last 30 years,” one said.

Troubled by the Ghosts of Eccles

One resident remembered a school trip to the nearby village of Eccles, which has almost entirely vanished into the sea, including its place of worship and burial ground.

“It was possible to see people’s bones,” she said. “Certain people hold this romantic idea that people’s remains will just get carried away to sea. That is not the case. People will collect remains as mementos and go plundering graves looking for treasures. It’s completely undignified.”

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

A Paratrooper's Grave in Peril

Further up the coast lies the grave of a former paratrooper killed while working abroad. His parent said she lost sleep after learning her son’s grave might one day be moved.

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

In her view, new interments should cease but says it is too soon to exhume existing graves. “My preference for now is to do nothing and closely monitor, but an timely resolution needs to be made when a critical moment has been reached.”

Seeking Solutions and Certainty

The lack of consensus over when and how to tackle the problem has resulted in bereaved families feeling frustrated and worried.

Some want more sea defences to slow the unavoidable loss and to permit funerals to continue for now. Different voices contend the moment for relocation is approaching.

“It is very emotional,” a family member stated. “The council’s report was thorough, 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 burial sites were under the care of the local diocese. “In the end it is down to them to decide the direction to take. We are here to assist them through that process with communities.”

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

“There is no unified opinion on what should happen yet. It requires productive local conversations to discover the appropriate solutions for each community.”

The possibility of the loss of the historic sites was described as one of “profound sadness for the area,” but faith leaders also spoke of a belief in life after death, providing a spiritual perspective on the temporal loss of sacred ground.