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Families whose relatives laid to rest in graves vulnerable to coastal erosion state that indecision on how best to tackle the issue is creating avoidable anguish about the final resting places of their loved ones.

An Impending Threat to Ancient Graveyards

The council have identified three church graveyards in the villages of Happisburgh, Trimingham, and Mundesley as being at risk of being engulfed by the ocean in the coming decades.

A newly published study on the situation sets out a series of possible actions, from doing nothing to exhuming remains and relocating them in more secure locations. Officials maintain it is for the community to determine how to move forward.

“Right now we’re in a state of uncertainty. It upsets me. They intended this to be their final resting place, but it isn’t going to be because of the sea.”

Estimates indicate at least a portion of one churchyard could fall into the waves in the next 80 years, but some residents worry it will happen much sooner. “In my view it’s got under 20 years, if you consider what’s happened in the last 30 years,” one said.

Troubled by the Ghosts of Eccles

A local business owner remembered a childhood visit to the neighbouring village of Eccles, which has largely vanished into the sea, including its church and graveyard.

“You could see people’s bones,” she said. “Some have this idealized notion that the deceased will just get washed out to sea. That is not the case. Individuals will take bones as mementos and go plundering graves in search of treasures. It’s completely undignified.”

“I’m worried that the identical fate that befell at Eccles will occur here and there’ll be bones on the shore. I would feel appalled by that.”

A Paratrooper's Grave in Peril

Along the shoreline lies the burial plot of a ex-soldier killed while working abroad. His mother said she could not sleep after learning her son’s grave might one day be moved.

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

In her view, new burials should cease but says it is premature to disturb current plots. “What I would choose for now is to take no action and watch carefully, but an early decision must be made when a critical moment has been attained.”

Searching for Solutions and Certainty

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

Some are calling for additional coastal protections to slow the unavoidable loss and to allow funerals to continue for now. Others contend the time for relocation is drawing near.

“It is very emotional,” said one relative. “The council’s report was really good, but now there’s uncertainty about how it is implemented. And everybody is avoiding responsibility over who is accountable.”

A coastal manager said the burial sites were owned and managed of the church authorities. “Ultimately it is up to them to decide the path to take. We are here to help support them through that process with communities.”

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

“Currently, there exists no common view on what should happen yet. We need productive local conversations to discover the appropriate answers for each community.”

The possibility of the loss of the churches and graveyards was described as one of “immense sadness for the local community,” but faith leaders also spoke of a doctrine in life after death, offering a theological viewpoint on the temporal loss of sacred ground.