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Families of people buried in resting places vulnerable to coastal erosion state that indecision over how to address the issue is causing them avoidable anguish about the final resting places of their loved ones.

An Impending Threat to Ancient Graveyards

Local authorities have identified three burial grounds in the villages of Happisburgh, Mundesley, and Trimingham as being in danger of being engulfed by the sea in the coming decades.

A newly published study on the issue sets out a range of options, from taking no action to disinterring bodies and relocating them in more secure sites. Officials say it is for the community to decide how to move forward.

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

Projections indicate at least a portion of one graveyard could be claimed by the sea 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 look at what’s occurred in the last 30 years,” a farmer stated.

Troubled by the Ghosts of Eccles

One resident remembered a childhood visit to the nearby settlement of Eccles, which has largely vanished into the sea, along with its church and graveyard.

“You could see people’s bones,” she said. “Some have this idealized notion that people’s remains will just get carried away to the ocean. They won’t. Individuals will take bones as mementos and go plundering graves in search of treasures. It’s completely disrespectful.”

“I’m worried that the same thing that befell at Eccles will happen here and there’ll be skeletons on the beach. I would feel appalled by that.”

A Paratrooper's Grave in Peril

Further up the shoreline lies the burial plot of a former paratrooper who died while serving overseas. His mother expressed she could not sleep after discovering her son’s final plot might one day be moved.

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

In her view, new interments should stop but says it is too soon to exhume existing graves. “My preference for now is to do nothing and closely monitor, but an timely resolution must be made when a tipping point has been reached.”

Seeking Solutions and Certainty

An absence of agreement over when and how to handle the challenge has resulted in bereaved families feeling frustrated and worried.

Some want more sea defences to delay the unavoidable loss and to allow burials to continue for now. Different voices contend the time for moving graves is drawing near.

“The situation is very emotional,” a family member stated. “The official study was really good, but now there’s uncertainty about how it is implemented. And everybody is washing their hands over who is responsible.”

A coastal manager said the burial sites were under the care of the church authorities. “In the end it is down to them to choose the direction to take. Our role is here to help support them through that process with residents.”

It was also stated there was ample time to weigh all the options. “We are talking many years before it starts to be lost.”

“Currently, there exists no unified opinion on what should happen yet. We need good local conversations to discover the appropriate answers for each community.”

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