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Families of people buried in resting places at risk from coastal erosion say that a lack of decision over how to tackle the issue is creating unnecessary distress about the final resting places of their loved ones.

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

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

Estimates indicate at least a portion of one churchyard could fall into the sea in the next 80 years, but some residents fear it will happen much sooner. “I think it’s got less than 20 years, if you look at what’s occurred in the last 30 years,” a farmer stated.

Troubled by the Past

One resident remembered a childhood visit to the nearby settlement of Eccles, which has almost entirely vanished into the water, including its church and graveyard.

“You could see people’s bones,” she said. “Some have this idealized notion that the deceased will just get carried away to sea. They won’t. People will take bones as mementos and go plundering graves looking for treasures. It’s completely undignified.”

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

A Soldier's Resting Place in Peril

Along the coast is situated the grave of a former paratrooper who died while working abroad. His mother said she could not sleep after learning her child's grave might one day be moved.

“It truly trouble me to consider 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 cease but says it is too soon to disturb existing graves. “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 handle the challenge has left bereaved families feeling frustrated and worried.

Several families want additional coastal protections to slow the inevitable erosion and to allow funerals to continue for now. Different voices contend the moment for relocation is drawing near.

“The situation is very emotive,” said one relative. “The official study was thorough, but now there’s uncertainty about how it is implemented. And everybody is avoiding responsibility over who is accountable.”

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 assist them through that process with residents.”

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

“Currently, there exists no unified opinion on what should happen yet. We need productive local conversations to find the right answers for each community.”

The prospect of the loss of the historic sites was described as one of “immense sorrow for the local community,” but church representatives also referenced a doctrine in resurrection, providing a spiritual perspective on the temporal disappearance of sacred ground.