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Families of people laid to rest in resting places at risk from coastal erosion state that indecision over how to tackle the issue is causing them avoidable anguish about the final resting places of their loved ones.

An Impending Danger to Ancient Graveyards

Local authorities have singled out three church graveyards in the communities of Happisburgh, Trimingham, and Mundesley as being in danger of being engulfed by the ocean in the next few generations.

A recent report on the situation sets out a range of options, from taking no action to disinterring bodies and reburying them in safer sites. Officials maintain it is for local people to determine how to move forward.

“At the moment we’re in a state of uncertainty. It upsets me. My parents wanted this to serve as their last home, but it isn’t going to be because of the sea.”

Projections suggest at least part of one churchyard could be claimed by the sea in the next 80 years, but some residents worry it will happen far earlier. “I think it’s got less than 20 years, if you look at what’s occurred in the last 30 years,” one said.

Troubled by the Ghosts of Eccles

A local business owner remembered a school trip to the nearby settlement of Eccles, which has almost entirely disappeared into the sea, including its place of worship and burial ground.

“You could see human remains,” she said. “Some have this romantic idea that people’s remains will just get washed out to sea. That is not the case. People will take bones as mementos and go plundering graves looking for treasures. It’s completely disrespectful.”

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

A Soldier's Resting Place in Jeopardy

Along the shoreline is situated the grave of a former paratrooper killed while working abroad. His mother expressed she could not sleep after discovering her son’s grave might one day be moved.

“It truly trouble me to consider this may not remain his permanent home,” she said. “For us it’s an significant place to go.”

In her view, new burials should cease but says it is too soon to exhume existing graves. “What I would choose for now is to do nothing and closely monitor, but an timely resolution needs to be made when a tipping point has been reached.”

Seeking Solutions and Certainty

An absence of consensus over the timing and method to handle the challenge has resulted in bereaved families feeling exasperated and worried.

Some are calling for additional sea defences to slow the unavoidable loss and to allow burials to proceed for now. Different voices argue the moment for moving graves is drawing near.

“It is very emotive,” said one relative. “The official study was really good, but now there’s confusion 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 up to them to decide the path to take. We are here to help support them through that journey with residents.”

He added there was time to weigh all the choices. “This concerns many years before it starts to be lost.”

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

The possibility of the loss of the historic sites was labeled one of “immense sadness for the area,” but faith leaders also spoke of a doctrine in resurrection, offering a theological viewpoint on the physical disappearance of sacred ground.