🔗 Share this article

Loved ones of people laid to rest in resting places vulnerable to shoreline retreat say that indecision on how best to address the problem is creating unnecessary distress concerning the final resting places of their loved ones.

A Looming Danger to Ancient Churchyards

Local authorities have singled out three church graveyards in the communities of Happisburgh, Trimingham, and Mundesley as being in danger of being consumed by the ocean 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. Officials maintain it is for the community to decide how to move forward.

“At the moment we’re in a state of uncertainty. It upsets me. They wanted this to be their final resting place, but it won't be because of the sea.”

Estimates indicate at least part of one churchyard could fall into the waves in the next 80 years, but some locals worry it will happen much sooner. “In my view it’s got less than 20 years, if you look at what’s happened in the last 30 years,” a farmer stated.

Troubled by the Past

A local business owner recalled a childhood visit to the nearby village of Eccles, which has almost entirely disappeared into the sea, including its church and graveyard.

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

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

A Soldier's Resting Place in Peril

Further up the coast is situated the grave of a ex-soldier who died while working overseas. His mother expressed she could not sleep after learning her son’s final plot might one day be relocated.

“It truly disturb me to consider this won’t be his permanent home,” she said. “For us it’s an important place to go.”

In her view, new interments should cease but says it is premature to disturb existing graves. “My preference for now is to do nothing and closely monitor, but an early decision needs to be made when a critical moment has been reached.”

Searching for Solutions and Certainty

The lack of agreement over when and how to tackle the problem has resulted in grieving relatives feeling exasperated and worried.

Some are calling for additional sea defences to slow the inevitable erosion and to permit funerals to proceed for now. Others contend the moment for relocation is approaching.

“It is very emotive,” a family member stated. “The council’s report was really good, but now there’s confusion about how it is taken forward. And everybody is avoiding responsibility over who is accountable.”

A local official said the graveyards were owned and managed of the local diocese. “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 communities.”

It was also stated there was ample time to weigh all the options. “This concerns decades 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 solutions for each community.”

The possibility of losing the historic sites was described as one of “profound sadness for the local community,” but church representatives also spoke of a doctrine in resurrection, providing a theological perspective on the temporal disappearance of sacred ground.