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Loved ones whose relatives laid to rest in resting places at risk from coastal erosion argue that indecision on how best to tackle the issue is causing them unnecessary distress about the final resting places of their departed family.

An Impending Threat to Historic Churchyards

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

A recent report on the issue sets out a range of options, from taking no action to disinterring bodies and relocating them in safer sites. Authorities maintain it is for the community to decide how to move forward.

“At the moment we’re in a state of uncertainty. It causes me distress. They wanted this to be their last home, but it won't be because of the encroaching sea.”

Projections indicate at least a portion of one churchyard could fall into the waves in the next 80 years, but some locals fear it will happen much sooner. “In my view it’s got less than 20 years, if you look at what’s happened in the last 30 years,” one said.

Haunted by the Ghosts of Eccles

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

“You could see human remains,” she said. “Certain people hold this romantic idea that people’s remains will just get washed out to sea. That is not the case. People will take bones as souvenirs and go grave robbing looking for treasures. It’s completely undignified.”

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

A Soldier's Resting Place in Jeopardy

Further up the shoreline is situated the grave of a ex-soldier killed while serving overseas. His mother said she could not sleep after discovering her child's grave might one day be moved.

“It truly disturb me to think this won’t be his permanent home,” she said. “To our family it’s an significant site to visit.”

In her view, new interments should stop but says it is premature to exhume current plots. “What I would choose for now is to do nothing and watch carefully, but an timely resolution needs to be made when a tipping point has been reached.”

Seeking Answers and Clarity

An absence of agreement over when and how to handle the problem has left grieving relatives feeling exasperated and anxious.

Some are calling for additional coastal protections to delay the unavoidable loss and to allow burials to continue for now. Others argue the moment for moving graves is drawing near.

“It is very emotive,” said one relative. “The official study was thorough, 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 church authorities. “In the end it is down to them to choose the path to take. Our role is here to assist them through that process with residents.”

It was also stated there was time to consider all the choices. “We are talking decades before it begins getting lost.”

“There is no common view on what should happen yet. We need productive community discussions to find the appropriate answers for each community.”

The possibility of losing the churches and graveyards was labeled one of “profound sadness for the local community,” but church representatives also spoke of a doctrine in life after death, providing a theological perspective on the temporal loss of sacred ground.