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Families of people laid to rest in resting places at risk from shoreline retreat say that indecision over how to address the issue is causing them avoidable anguish about the final resting places of their loved ones.

A Looming Threat to Historic Graveyards

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

A newly published study on the issue sets out a series of options, from doing nothing to exhuming remains and relocating them in more secure locations. Officials say it is for local people to decide how to proceed.

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

Projections suggest at least part of one churchyard could fall into the sea 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 occurred in the last 30 years,” one said.

Haunted by the Past

A local business owner recalled a school trip to the neighbouring village of Eccles, which has largely disappeared into the sea, including its place of worship and burial ground.

“It was possible to see people’s bones,” she said. “Certain people hold this romantic idea that people’s remains will just get washed out to the ocean. They won’t. Individuals will collect remains as mementos and go grave robbing in search of treasures. That is completely disrespectful.”

“I fear that the identical fate that happened at Eccles will occur at Happisburgh and there’ll be skeletons on the beach. I would feel disgusted by that.”

A Paratrooper's Resting Place in Peril

Further up the coast is situated the burial plot of a former paratrooper killed while working abroad. His parent said she lost sleep after discovering her son’s grave might one day be relocated.

“It truly disturb me to consider this won’t be his permanent resting place,” she said. “To our family it’s an significant place to go.”

In her view, new interments should stop but says it is premature to disturb current plots. “What I would choose for now is to take no action and closely monitor, but an timely resolution must be made when a critical moment has been attained.”

Searching for Solutions and Certainty

The lack of consensus over when and how to tackle the challenge has left grieving relatives feeling frustrated and worried.

Several families want additional coastal protections to slow the inevitable erosion and to allow burials to continue for now. Different voices argue the time for moving graves is approaching.

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

A local official said the burial sites were under the care of the church authorities. “In the end it is down to them to decide the direction to take. Our role is here to help support them through that process with communities.”

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

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

The prospect of the loss of the churches and graveyards was labeled one of “profound sorrow for the area,” but faith leaders also referenced a belief in resurrection, offering a theological viewpoint on the physical disappearance of hallowed earth.