🔗 Share this article

Families whose relatives buried in graves vulnerable to shoreline retreat state that a lack of decision over how to tackle the issue is creating unnecessary distress about the final resting places of their departed family.

An Impending Threat to Historic Graveyards

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

A newly published study on the issue sets out a series of possible actions, from doing nothing to exhuming remains and reburying them in more secure sites. Officials say it is for local people to determine how to proceed.

“At the moment we’re in limbo. It upsets me. My parents intended this to be their last home, but it won't be because of the sea.”

Projections suggest at least part of one graveyard could fall into the waves in the next 80 years, but some residents worry it will happen far earlier. “In my view it’s got less than 20 years, if you look at what’s occurred in the last 30 years,” one said.

Troubled by the Ghosts of Eccles

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

“You could 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 take bones as souvenirs and go grave robbing looking for treasures. That is completely undignified.”

“I fear that the identical fate that befell at Eccles will happen at Happisburgh and there’ll be bones on the beach. I’d be appalled by that.”

A Soldier's Grave in Jeopardy

Along the coast is situated the burial plot of a ex-soldier killed while working overseas. His mother said she could not sleep after discovering her child's final plot might one day be relocated.

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

She believes, new interments should cease but says it is too soon to disturb existing graves. “My preference for now is to do nothing and closely monitor, but an timely resolution needs to be made when a tipping point has been attained.”

Seeking Solutions and Clarity

An absence of agreement over the timing and method to tackle the problem has left bereaved families feeling exasperated and worried.

Several families want additional coastal protections to slow the unavoidable loss and to allow burials to proceed for now. Others contend the moment for relocation is approaching.

“It is very emotional,” 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 avoiding responsibility over who is accountable.”

A local official said the burial sites were owned and managed of the church authorities. “In the end it is down to them to decide 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 choices. “We are talking decades before it begins getting lost.”

“There is no unified opinion on what should be done yet. We need good local conversations to discover the appropriate answers for each community.”

The possibility of losing the historic sites was labeled one of “immense sorrow for the area,” but faith leaders also spoke of a belief in resurrection, offering a spiritual viewpoint on the temporal loss of sacred ground.