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Loved ones of people buried in graves at risk from coastal erosion state that indecision on how best to address the issue is creating avoidable anguish about the eternal homes of their departed family.

A Looming Danger to Historic Graveyards

The council have singled out three church graveyards in the communities of Happisburgh, Mundesley, and Trimingham as being at risk of being consumed by the ocean in the coming decades.

A newly published study on the situation details a series of options, from doing nothing to exhuming remains and relocating them in safer sites. Authorities maintain 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 be their last home, but it isn’t going to be because of the encroaching sea.”

Estimates suggest at least a portion of one graveyard could fall into the sea in the next 80 years, but some locals 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,” one said.

Haunted by the Ghosts of Eccles

A local business owner recalled a school trip to the nearby settlement of Eccles, which has almost entirely vanished into the water, including its church and graveyard.

“You could see human remains,” she said. “Certain people hold this romantic idea that people’s remains will just get carried away to sea. That is not the case. People will collect remains as souvenirs and go plundering graves looking for valuables. It’s completely undignified.”

“I fear that the same thing that befell at Eccles will occur here and there’ll be skeletons on the beach. I would feel disgusted by that.”

A Paratrooper's Resting Place in Peril

Further up the shoreline lies the burial plot of a ex-soldier who died while serving overseas. His parent said she could not sleep after discovering her child's grave might one day be moved.

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

She believes, new burials should stop but says it is premature to exhume existing graves. “What I would choose for now is to do nothing and closely monitor, but an early decision needs to be made when a critical moment has been attained.”

Searching for Solutions and Certainty

An absence of agreement over when and how to handle the challenge has left grieving relatives feeling exasperated and anxious.

Some are calling for more coastal protections to slow the unavoidable loss and to allow burials to proceed for now. Different voices contend the time for relocation is approaching.

“It is very emotional,” a family member stated. “The council’s report was thorough, but now there’s uncertainty about how it is taken forward. And all parties is washing their hands over who is accountable.”

A coastal manager confirmed the graveyards were under the care of the church authorities. “Ultimately it is down to them to decide the path to take. We are here to assist them through that journey with communities.”

He added there was ample time to weigh all the options. “This concerns decades before it begins getting lost.”

“There is no unified opinion on what should happen yet. It requires productive community discussions to discover the appropriate solutions for each village.”

The prospect of losing the churches and graveyards was labeled one of “immense sadness for the area,” but faith leaders also spoke of a doctrine in resurrection, providing a spiritual viewpoint on the physical disappearance of hallowed earth.