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Families of people buried in graves vulnerable to shoreline retreat say that indecision on how best to address the problem is creating unnecessary distress about the eternal homes of their loved ones.

A Looming Danger to Historic Graveyards

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

A recent report on the issue sets out a series of options, from doing nothing to disinterring bodies and relocating them in safer locations. Authorities say it is for the community to determine how to move forward.

“At the moment 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 encroaching sea.”

Projections 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 far earlier. “In my view it’s got less than 20 years, if you consider what’s occurred in the last 30 years,” a farmer stated.

Haunted by the Ghosts of Eccles

One resident remembered a childhood visit to the nearby settlement of Eccles, which has almost entirely disappeared into the water, along with its place of worship and burial ground.

“You could see human remains,” she said. “Some have this idealized notion that people’s remains will just get carried away to sea. They won’t. People will take bones as mementos and go grave robbing looking for valuables. It’s completely undignified.”

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

A Paratrooper's Grave in Jeopardy

Further up the coast is situated the burial plot of a former paratrooper killed while working overseas. His parent expressed she could not sleep after discovering her child's final plot might one day be moved.

“It truly disturb me to consider this won’t be his lasting home,” she said. “To our family it’s an significant site to visit.”

She believes, new burials should stop but says it is too soon to exhume existing graves. “What I would choose for now is to take no action and watch carefully, but an early decision needs to be made when a tipping point has been reached.”

Searching for Solutions and Certainty

The lack of agreement over when and how to handle the problem has resulted in bereaved families feeling frustrated and worried.

Several families want more sea defences to slow the unavoidable loss and to allow funerals to continue for now. Different voices contend the moment for moving graves is drawing near.

“It is very emotive,” said one relative. “The official study was thorough, but now there’s confusion about how it is taken forward. And all parties is washing their hands over who is responsible.”

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

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

“Currently, there exists no unified opinion on what should happen yet. It requires productive local conversations to find the appropriate solutions for each community.”

The possibility of the loss of the historic sites was described as one of “profound sorrow for the local community,” but church representatives also spoke of a belief in life after death, offering a spiritual viewpoint on the temporal loss of sacred ground.