Families' Heartache Regarding Coastal Erosion Threatening Norfolk Burial Sites

Loved ones whose relatives laid to rest in graves at risk from shoreline retreat state that a lack of decision on how best to tackle the issue is creating avoidable anguish concerning the final resting places of their departed family.

An Impending Threat to Historic Churchyards

Local authorities have singled out three church graveyards in the villages of Happisburgh, Trimingham, and Mundesley as being in danger of being swallowed by the sea in the next few generations.

A recent report on the issue sets out a series of possible actions, from doing nothing to disinterring bodies and reburying them in safer sites. Authorities say it is for the community to decide how to proceed.

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

Estimates suggest at least part of one churchyard could be claimed by the sea in the next 80 years, but some locals fear it will happen much sooner. “I think it’s got less than 20 years, if you consider what’s occurred in the last 30 years,” a farmer stated.

Troubled by the Ghosts of Eccles

One resident recalled a school trip to the nearby village of Eccles, which has almost entirely disappeared into the sea, along with its church and graveyard.

“It was possible to see people’s bones,” she said. “Some have this romantic idea that people’s remains will just get washed out to the ocean. That is not the case. Individuals will take bones as mementos and go plundering graves in search of treasures. That is completely undignified.”

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

A Soldier's Resting Place in Jeopardy

Further up the shoreline is situated the burial plot of a ex-soldier who died while serving overseas. His parent said she lost sleep after discovering her son’s final plot might one day be moved.

“It does trouble me to think this may not remain his lasting resting place,” she said. “To our family it’s an important site to visit.”

In her view, new interments should cease but says it is too soon to disturb current plots. “What I would choose for now is to do nothing and watch carefully, but an early decision needs to be made when a tipping point has been attained.”

Seeking Solutions and Certainty

An absence of consensus over when and how to tackle the problem has left bereaved families feeling exasperated and worried.

Several families want additional sea defences to delay the inevitable erosion and to permit burials to proceed for now. Different voices contend the moment for moving graves is approaching.

“The situation is very emotive,” said one relative. “The official study was really good, but now there’s uncertainty about how it is implemented. And all parties is avoiding responsibility over who is accountable.”

A coastal manager said the burial sites were under the care of the local diocese. “In the end it is down to them to choose the direction to take. We are here to assist them through that journey with communities.”

He added there was time to weigh all the options. “We are talking decades before it starts to be lost.”

“There is no common view on what should happen yet. It requires productive local conversations to find the right solutions for each community.”

The possibility of losing the churches and graveyards was labeled one of “profound sorrow for the area,” but faith leaders also spoke of a belief in resurrection, providing a spiritual perspective on the temporal loss of hallowed earth.