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Loved ones of people buried in resting places at risk from shoreline retreat argue that indecision over how to tackle the problem is creating unnecessary distress about the eternal homes of their loved ones.

An Impending Danger to Ancient Graveyards

The council 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 situation sets out a series of options, from taking no action to exhuming remains and relocating them in safer locations. Officials maintain it is for the community to decide how to proceed.

“Right now we’re in a state of uncertainty. It causes me distress. My parents intended this to serve as their last home, but it isn’t going to be because of the sea.”

Estimates suggest at least part of one churchyard could fall into the waves in the next 80 years, but some locals fear it will happen much sooner. “I think it’s got under 20 years, if you consider what’s happened in the last 30 years,” a farmer stated.

Haunted by the Ghosts of Eccles

A local business owner remembered a childhood visit to the nearby settlement of Eccles, which has largely vanished into the sea, along with its place of worship and burial ground.

“It was possible to see people’s bones,” she said. “Some have 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 in search of treasures. That is completely undignified.”

“I’m worried that the same thing that happened at Eccles will occur at Happisburgh and there’ll be skeletons on the shore. I would feel appalled by that.”

A Paratrooper's Grave in Peril

Further up the coast lies the burial plot of a ex-soldier killed while serving abroad. His mother said she could not sleep after learning her son’s final plot might one day be relocated.

“It truly disturb me to think this won’t be his permanent resting place,” she said. “For us it’s an significant place to go.”

She believes, new burials should cease but says it is too soon to exhume existing graves. “My preference for now is to take no action and watch carefully, but an timely resolution needs to be made when a tipping point has been reached.”

Searching for Answers and Certainty

The lack of agreement over the timing and method to handle the challenge has resulted in bereaved families feeling frustrated and worried.

Some want additional coastal protections to delay the inevitable erosion and to allow burials to proceed for now. Others argue the time for relocation is drawing near.

“The situation is very emotional,” said one relative. “The council’s report was thorough, but now there’s uncertainty about how it is taken forward. And all parties is washing their hands over who is responsible.”

A coastal manager said the burial sites were owned and managed of the local diocese. “In the end it is down to them to choose the path to take. We are here to assist them through that process with residents.”

It was also stated there was time to weigh all the options. “This concerns decades before it begins getting lost.”

“There is no common view on what should happen yet. We need good local conversations to find the right answers for each village.”

The prospect of losing the churches and graveyards was labeled one of “immense sorrow for the local community,” but church representatives also referenced a doctrine in resurrection, offering a spiritual viewpoint on the temporal loss of sacred ground.