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Loved ones of people laid to rest in resting places at risk from shoreline retreat say that indecision over how to tackle the problem is causing them avoidable anguish about the final resting places of their loved ones.

An Impending Danger to Ancient Churchyards

Local authorities have identified three church graveyards in the communities of Happisburgh, Trimingham, and Mundesley as being at risk of being consumed by the ocean in the coming decades.

A newly published study on the situation sets out a series of possible actions, from taking no action to disinterring bodies and reburying them in more secure locations. Authorities say it is for local people to decide how to move forward.

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

Projections suggest at least a portion of one graveyard could be claimed by the sea in the next 80 years, but some residents 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 Ghosts of Eccles

One resident remembered a childhood visit to the nearby village of Eccles, which has almost entirely vanished into the water, along with its church and graveyard.

“You could see people’s bones,” she said. “Some have this romantic idea that people’s remains will just get washed out to the ocean. They won’t. People will take bones as mementos and go grave robbing in search of treasures. It’s completely disrespectful.”

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

A Soldier's Resting Place in Jeopardy

Further up the shoreline is situated the burial plot of a former paratrooper killed while serving abroad. His parent expressed she lost sleep after learning her child's final plot might one day be relocated.

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

In her view, new interments should cease but says it is premature to exhume current plots. “My preference for now is to do nothing and closely monitor, but an early decision must be made when a tipping point has been reached.”

Searching for Answers and Clarity

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

Some want additional coastal protections to delay the inevitable erosion and to allow funerals to proceed for now. Different voices contend the time for relocation is drawing near.

“It is very emotive,” said one relative. “The council’s report was really good, but now there’s confusion about how it is implemented. And everybody is washing their hands over who is accountable.”

A local official confirmed the graveyards were under the care of the local diocese. “Ultimately it is down to them to decide the direction to take. Our role is here to assist them through that journey with communities.”

He added there was ample time to consider all the options. “We are talking decades before it begins getting lost.”

“Currently, there exists no common view on what should happen yet. It requires good local conversations to discover the appropriate answers for each village.”

The prospect of losing the churches and graveyards was described as one of “immense sadness for the area,” but faith leaders also spoke of a belief in resurrection, providing a theological viewpoint on the temporal loss of hallowed earth.