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Families of people buried in resting places at risk from coastal erosion state that a lack of decision on how best to tackle the issue is causing them avoidable anguish about the eternal homes of their departed family.

An Impending Threat to Historic Churchyards

The council have singled out three burial grounds in the villages of Happisburgh, Mundesley, and Trimingham as being at risk of being engulfed by the sea in the coming decades.

A newly published study on the issue sets out a range of possible actions, from doing nothing to exhuming remains and relocating them in more secure locations. Authorities say it is for local people 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 last home, but it won't be because of the encroaching sea.”

Projections suggest at least a portion of one churchyard could fall into the waves in the next 80 years, but some locals fear it will happen much sooner. “I think it’s got under 20 years, if you consider what’s happened in the last 30 years,” a farmer stated.

Troubled by the Past

A local business owner remembered a school trip to the neighbouring village of Eccles, which has largely vanished into the sea, along with its church and graveyard.

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

“I fear that the identical fate that befell at Eccles will happen 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 shoreline lies the burial plot of a former paratrooper who died while serving abroad. His mother said she could not sleep after discovering her child's grave might one day be moved.

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

In her view, new interments should stop but says it is too soon to exhume existing graves. “What I would choose for now is to do nothing 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 consensus over when and how to handle the problem has left grieving relatives feeling exasperated and anxious.

Several families want more sea defences to delay the inevitable erosion and to allow funerals to proceed for now. Different voices argue the time for moving graves is approaching.

“The situation is very emotive,” a family member stated. “The council’s report was thorough, but now there’s uncertainty about how it is taken forward. And all parties is washing their hands over who is responsible.”

A local official said the graveyards were owned and managed of the church authorities. “Ultimately it is up to them to choose the path to take. We are here to help support them through that journey with residents.”

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

“Currently, there exists no common view on what should happen yet. We need good local conversations to find the right answers for each village.”

The prospect of the loss of the churches and graveyards was described as one of “immense sadness for the area,” but faith leaders also referenced a belief in life after death, offering a spiritual perspective on the physical loss of hallowed earth.