🔗 Share this article

Families whose relatives laid to rest in resting places at risk from coastal erosion state that a lack of decision over how to tackle the issue is causing them avoidable anguish concerning the eternal homes of their loved ones.

An Impending Threat to Ancient Graveyards

The council have identified three church graveyards in the villages of Happisburgh, Mundesley, and Trimingham as being at risk of being consumed by the sea in the next few generations.

A newly published study on the situation sets out a range of options, from doing nothing to disinterring bodies and relocating them in more secure sites. Officials say it is for the community to determine how to move forward.

“At the moment we’re in limbo. It upsets me. They wanted this to be their final resting place, but it isn’t going to 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 consider what’s occurred in the last 30 years,” one said.

Haunted by the Ghosts of Eccles

A local business owner remembered a childhood visit to the nearby settlement of Eccles, which has almost entirely disappeared into the sea, along with 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 the ocean. They won’t. People will take bones as mementos and go grave robbing in search of valuables. That is completely disrespectful.”

“I fear that the same thing that befell at Eccles will happen here and there’ll be bones on the beach. I would feel disgusted by that.”

A Paratrooper's Grave in Jeopardy

Further up the coast is situated the grave of a ex-soldier killed while serving overseas. His mother said she could not sleep after learning her son’s grave might one day be moved.

“It truly trouble me to think this may not remain his lasting resting place,” she said. “To our family it’s an significant site to visit.”

She believes, new burials should cease but says it is premature to exhume current plots. “My preference for now is to take no action and closely monitor, but an early decision must be made when a tipping point has been attained.”

Seeking Solutions and Certainty

The lack of consensus over when and how to handle the problem has left grieving relatives feeling exasperated and anxious.

Some are calling for more sea defences to delay the inevitable erosion and to allow funerals to proceed for now. Others argue the moment for moving graves is drawing near.

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

A coastal manager confirmed the burial sites were owned and managed of the local diocese. “Ultimately it is up to them to choose the path to take. Our role is here to assist them through that process with residents.”

He added there was ample time to weigh all the options. “This concerns decades before it starts to be lost.”

“Currently, there exists no common view on what should happen yet. We need good local conversations to find the appropriate answers for each community.”

The possibility of losing the churches and graveyards was labeled one of “profound sorrow for the area,” but church representatives also spoke of a belief in resurrection, offering a spiritual viewpoint on the temporal loss of hallowed earth.