🔗 Share this article

Families of people laid to rest in graves vulnerable to coastal erosion say that indecision on how best to address the issue is creating avoidable anguish concerning the eternal homes of their departed family.

An Impending Threat to Ancient Graveyards

The council have singled out three burial grounds in the villages of Happisburgh, Mundesley, and Trimingham as being at risk of being consumed by the sea in the next few generations.

A recent report on the situation sets out a series of options, from doing nothing to disinterring bodies and reburying them in safer sites. Authorities say it is for the community to decide how to move forward.

“Right now we’re in limbo. It upsets me. They intended this to serve as their last home, but it won't be because of the sea.”

Projections indicate at least part of one churchyard could be claimed by the sea 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,” one said.

Haunted by the Ghosts of Eccles

A local business owner recalled a school trip to the neighbouring village of Eccles, which has largely vanished into the sea, along with its church and graveyard.

“It was possible to see human remains,” she said. “Certain people hold this idealized notion that the deceased will just get carried away to sea. They won’t. Individuals will take bones as souvenirs and go grave robbing in search of treasures. It’s completely undignified.”

“I fear that the same thing that befell at Eccles will occur at Happisburgh and there’ll be skeletons on the beach. I’d be appalled by that.”

A Paratrooper's Grave in Jeopardy

Along the shoreline is situated the burial plot of a ex-soldier who died while serving abroad. His parent expressed she could not sleep after learning her son’s grave might one day be relocated.

“It does disturb me to think this may not remain his permanent resting place,” she said. “To our family it’s an important site to visit.”

She believes, new interments should stop 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 needs to be made when a critical moment has been reached.”

Searching for Solutions and Clarity

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

Some want more sea defences to delay the unavoidable loss and to allow burials to proceed for now. Different voices argue the moment for moving graves is drawing near.

“The situation is very emotional,” a family member stated. “The council’s report was thorough, but now there’s confusion about how it is implemented. 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 up to them to decide the direction to take. Our role is here to assist them through that process with residents.”

He added there was ample time to consider all the choices. “We are talking many years before it starts to be lost.”

“Currently, there exists no common view on what should happen yet. It requires productive local conversations to find the appropriate solutions for each village.”

The prospect of losing the historic sites was labeled one of “profound sorrow for the local community,” but church representatives also spoke of a doctrine in resurrection, providing a spiritual viewpoint on the temporal loss of sacred ground.