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Loved ones of people buried in resting places vulnerable to shoreline retreat argue that indecision over how to address the issue is creating avoidable anguish concerning the final resting places of their departed family.

An Impending Threat to Ancient 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 situation sets out a range of possible actions, from doing nothing to exhuming remains and relocating them in more secure sites. Officials maintain 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 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 locals worry it will happen far earlier. “I think it’s got under 20 years, if you look at what’s happened in the last 30 years,” one said.

Haunted by the Ghosts of Eccles

One resident recalled a childhood visit to the nearby settlement of Eccles, which has largely disappeared into the water, along with its church and graveyard.

“It was possible to see human remains,” she said. “Some have this idealized notion that the deceased will just get washed out to sea. They won’t. People will collect remains as souvenirs and go plundering graves in search of treasures. That is completely undignified.”

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

A Paratrooper's Resting Place in Jeopardy

Further up the coast is situated the grave of a former paratrooper who died while working abroad. His mother expressed she could not sleep after discovering her child's final plot might one day be relocated.

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

In her view, new interments should cease but says it is premature to exhume current plots. “My preference for now is to do nothing and closely monitor, but an timely resolution needs to be made when a critical moment has been reached.”

Searching for Solutions and Clarity

An absence of consensus over the timing and method to tackle the problem has resulted in grieving relatives feeling frustrated and anxious.

Several families are calling for additional coastal protections to delay the unavoidable loss and to allow burials to continue for now. Others contend the time for moving graves is drawing near.

“It is very emotive,” said one relative. “The official study was really good, but now there’s confusion about how it is taken forward. And all parties is washing their hands over who is accountable.”

A local official said the burial sites were owned and managed of the local diocese. “In the end it is down to them to choose the direction to take. Our role is here to help support them through that process with residents.”

It was also stated there was ample time to weigh all the options. “This concerns many years before it starts to be lost.”

“Currently, there exists no unified opinion on what should be done yet. We need good community discussions to find the right answers for each community.”

The possibility of the loss of the churches and graveyards was described as one of “profound sorrow for the area,” but church representatives also referenced a doctrine in resurrection, offering a spiritual perspective on the temporal loss of sacred ground.