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Loved ones of people buried in resting places vulnerable to coastal erosion argue that a lack of decision on how best to address the issue is creating avoidable anguish about the eternal homes of their departed family.

An Impending Danger to Historic Graveyards

Local authorities have identified three burial grounds in the villages of Happisburgh, Trimingham, and Mundesley as being at risk of being engulfed by the sea in the next few generations.

A newly published study on the issue details a range of options, from doing nothing to disinterring bodies and relocating them in more secure sites. Officials maintain it is for the community to determine how to proceed.

“Right now we’re in a state of uncertainty. It causes me distress. My parents wanted this to be their final resting place, but it isn’t going to be because of the encroaching sea.”

Projections suggest at least a portion of one churchyard could fall into the sea in the next 80 years, but some locals worry it will happen far earlier. “In my view it’s got under 20 years, if you consider what’s happened in the last 30 years,” one said.

Haunted by the Past

A local business owner remembered a school trip to the nearby settlement of Eccles, which has almost entirely disappeared into the sea, along with its church and graveyard.

“You could see people’s bones,” she said. “Certain people hold this idealized notion that the deceased will just get carried away to the ocean. That is not the case. People will collect remains as mementos and go grave robbing looking for valuables. It’s completely undignified.”

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

A Paratrooper's Resting Place in Jeopardy

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

“It truly disturb me to consider this may not remain his lasting home,” she said. “For us it’s an significant site to visit.”

In her view, new interments should cease but says it is premature to disturb existing graves. “My preference for now is to take no action and closely monitor, but an timely resolution needs to be made when a critical moment has been attained.”

Seeking Solutions and Certainty

The lack of consensus over the timing and method to handle the problem has left bereaved families feeling exasperated and worried.

Some are calling for 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 approaching.

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

A local official confirmed the graveyards were owned and managed of the church authorities. “In the end it is up to them to choose the path to take. Our role is here to help support them through that journey with communities.”

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

“There is no unified opinion on what should happen yet. We need good local conversations to find the right answers for each community.”

The possibility of the loss of the historic sites was labeled one of “immense sadness for the area,” but church representatives also spoke of a doctrine in resurrection, offering a theological perspective on the physical disappearance of hallowed earth.