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Families of people buried in graves at risk from shoreline retreat state that indecision over how to address the problem is causing them avoidable anguish about the eternal homes of their loved ones.

An Impending Danger to Historic Churchyards

The council have singled out three burial grounds in the villages of Happisburgh, Trimingham, and Mundesley as being at risk of being swallowed by the sea in the next few generations.

A newly published study on the situation details a range of options, from doing nothing to exhuming remains and reburying them in safer sites. Officials say it is for the community to decide how to proceed.

“At the moment we’re in limbo. It causes me distress. My parents wanted this to be their last home, but it won't be because of the encroaching sea.”

Projections indicate at least part of one graveyard could be claimed by the waves in the next 80 years, but some locals worry it will happen much sooner. “In my view it’s got under 20 years, if you look at what’s occurred in the last 30 years,” one said.

Troubled by the Ghosts of Eccles

A local business owner remembered a school trip to the neighbouring settlement of Eccles, which has almost entirely disappeared into the water, along with its place of worship and burial ground.

“It was possible to see human remains,” she said. “Some have this romantic idea that people’s remains will just get washed out to the ocean. That is not the case. People will take bones as souvenirs and go grave robbing looking for valuables. That is completely undignified.”

“I fear that the identical fate that happened at Eccles will occur here and there’ll be skeletons on the shore. I’d be appalled by that.”

A Paratrooper's Grave in Peril

Further up the shoreline lies the grave of a ex-soldier who died while serving abroad. His parent expressed she could not sleep after learning her child's final plot might one day be moved.

“It does trouble me to consider this may not remain his permanent home,” she said. “For us it’s an important place to go.”

She believes, new interments should stop but says it is too soon to disturb current plots. “My preference for now is to take no action and closely monitor, but an early decision must be made when a critical moment has been attained.”

Searching for Solutions and Clarity

An absence of agreement over the timing and method to tackle the challenge has left grieving relatives feeling frustrated and worried.

Some want more sea defences to slow the inevitable erosion and to allow burials to proceed for now. Different voices argue the moment for relocation is approaching.

“It is very emotional,” a family member stated. “The council’s report was thorough, but now there’s uncertainty about how it is implemented. And all parties 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 down to them to choose the path to take. Our role is here to help support them through that process with residents.”

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

“Currently, there exists no common view on what should be done yet. It requires good local conversations to find the right solutions for each community.”

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