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Families whose relatives buried in resting places at risk from shoreline retreat say that indecision on how best to tackle the problem is creating unnecessary distress concerning the eternal homes of their loved ones.

A Looming Danger to Ancient Churchyards

Local authorities have singled out three burial grounds in the communities of Happisburgh, Trimingham, and Mundesley as being at risk of being swallowed by the sea in the coming decades.

A newly published study on the issue details a series of options, from taking no action to exhuming remains and reburying them in more secure sites. Authorities maintain it is for local people to determine how to proceed.

“At the moment we’re in limbo. It causes me distress. They intended this to be their last home, but it isn’t going to be because of the encroaching sea.”

Estimates indicate at least part of one churchyard could fall into the sea in the next 80 years, but some residents fear it will happen much sooner. “I think it’s got less than 20 years, if you consider what’s happened in the last 30 years,” one said.

Haunted by the Past

A local business owner recalled a childhood visit to the nearby settlement of Eccles, which has largely vanished into the sea, along with its church and graveyard.

“You could see human remains,” she said. “Certain people hold this romantic idea that the deceased will just get washed out to the ocean. They won’t. Individuals will take bones as souvenirs and go plundering graves looking for valuables. That is completely undignified.”

“I’m worried that the identical fate that happened at Eccles will occur here and there’ll be bones on the shore. I would feel disgusted by that.”

A Paratrooper's Resting Place in Peril

Further up the coast is situated the grave of a ex-soldier killed while serving overseas. His mother said she lost sleep after learning her child's grave might one day be moved.

“It does trouble me to think 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 existing graves. “My preference for now is to do nothing and watch carefully, but an timely resolution must be made when a critical moment has been attained.”

Seeking Solutions and Certainty

An absence of agreement over the timing and method to tackle the problem has left grieving relatives feeling exasperated and anxious.

Some are calling for more coastal protections to delay the inevitable erosion and to permit burials to proceed for now. Different voices contend the moment for relocation is approaching.

“It is very emotive,” said one relative. “The council’s report was thorough, but now there’s confusion about how it is taken forward. And all parties is avoiding responsibility over who is responsible.”

A coastal manager said the burial sites were under the care of the church authorities. “In the end it is down to them to choose the direction to take. We are here to assist them through that journey with residents.”

It was also stated there was time to weigh all the options. “We are talking decades before it starts to be lost.”

“Currently, there exists no unified opinion on what should be done yet. It requires good community discussions to discover the appropriate answers for each village.”

The prospect of the loss of the churches and graveyards was labeled one of “immense sadness for the area,” but church representatives also spoke of a belief in life after death, providing a spiritual viewpoint on the physical disappearance of sacred ground.