🔗 Share this article

Families of people buried in resting places at risk from shoreline retreat state that indecision on how best to address the problem is creating avoidable anguish about the eternal homes of their departed family.

An Impending Threat to Historic Graveyards

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

A recent report on the situation sets out a series of options, from taking no action to exhuming remains and reburying them in more secure sites. Officials maintain it is for local people to decide how to proceed.

“Right now we’re in a state of uncertainty. It causes me distress. My parents intended this to serve as their final resting place, 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 locals worry it will happen far earlier. “In my view it’s got less than 20 years, if you consider what’s occurred in the last 30 years,” one said.

Troubled by the Ghosts of Eccles

A local business owner recalled a school trip to the neighbouring settlement of Eccles, which has largely disappeared into the water, 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 sea. They won’t. People will collect remains as souvenirs and go grave robbing in search of valuables. That is completely disrespectful.”

“I’m worried that the same thing that befell at Eccles will occur at Happisburgh and there’ll be skeletons on the shore. I’d be disgusted by that.”

A Soldier's Resting Place in Jeopardy

Along the shoreline is situated the burial plot of a former paratrooper killed while working overseas. His mother expressed she lost sleep after learning her son’s grave might one day be moved.

“It does trouble me to think this won’t be his permanent resting place,” she said. “To our family it’s an important place to go.”

In her view, new interments should stop but says it is too soon to disturb current plots. “My preference for now is to take no action and watch carefully, but an timely resolution must be made when a critical moment has been attained.”

Seeking Solutions and Clarity

An absence of agreement over the timing and method to handle the challenge has resulted in grieving relatives feeling exasperated and worried.

Several families are calling for additional sea defences to slow the unavoidable loss and to allow burials to continue for now. Others contend the moment for moving graves is approaching.

“The situation is very emotional,” a family member stated. “The official study was really good, but now there’s uncertainty about how it is taken forward. And all parties is washing their hands over who is accountable.”

A local official confirmed the graveyards were owned and managed of the local diocese. “Ultimately it is up to them to decide the direction to take. Our role is here to assist them through that process with residents.”

He added there was time to consider all the choices. “This concerns decades before it begins getting lost.”

“Currently, there exists no unified opinion on what should be done yet. It requires good community discussions to discover the appropriate solutions for each village.”

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