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Loved ones whose relatives laid to rest in resting places at risk from coastal erosion argue that indecision over how to tackle the problem is causing them avoidable anguish concerning the eternal homes of their loved ones.

An Impending Danger to Historic Churchyards

The council have identified three church graveyards in the communities of Happisburgh, Mundesley, and Trimingham as being at risk of being engulfed by the ocean in the coming decades.

A recent report on the issue sets out a range of options, from taking no action to exhuming remains and reburying them in safer locations. Authorities say it is for local people to decide how to proceed.

“Right now we’re in limbo. It causes me distress. My parents wanted this to serve as their final resting place, but it isn’t going to be because of the encroaching sea.”

Projections suggest at least a portion of one churchyard could be claimed by the waves in the next 80 years, but some residents fear it will happen far earlier. “I think it’s got under 20 years, if you look at 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 neighbouring settlement of Eccles, which has almost entirely vanished into the water, including its church and graveyard.

“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. That is not the case. People will take bones as mementos and go plundering graves in search of treasures. That is completely undignified.”

“I’m worried that the identical fate that befell at Eccles will happen here and there’ll be bones on the shore. I’d be appalled by that.”

A Paratrooper's Resting Place in Peril

Along the shoreline is situated the grave of a former paratrooper killed while working abroad. His parent said she could not sleep after learning her son’s final plot might one day be moved.

“It does disturb 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 interments should cease but says it is too soon to exhume current plots. “What I would choose for now is to do nothing and closely monitor, but an early decision must 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 problem has resulted in bereaved families feeling exasperated and anxious.

Some want more coastal protections to slow the inevitable erosion and to permit funerals to proceed for now. Others contend the time for relocation is approaching.

“It is very emotive,” a family member stated. “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 local official said the burial sites were owned and managed of the church authorities. “In the end it is up 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 ample time to consider all the options. “This concerns decades before it begins getting lost.”

“There is no common view on what should happen yet. It requires good local conversations to discover the appropriate solutions for each community.”

The possibility of the loss of the churches and graveyards was labeled one of “immense sadness for the area,” but faith leaders also spoke of a doctrine in life after death, offering a spiritual viewpoint on the physical disappearance of sacred ground.