Families whose relatives buried in graves vulnerable to shoreline retreat argue that a lack of decision over how to address the problem is creating unnecessary distress about the eternal homes of their departed family.
Local authorities have singled out three burial grounds in the communities of Happisburgh, Mundesley, and Trimingham as being at risk of being engulfed by the ocean in the coming decades.
A newly published study on the issue sets out a series of possible actions, from doing nothing to exhuming remains and relocating them in more secure sites. Authorities maintain it is for local people to decide how to proceed.
“Right now we’re in limbo. It upsets me. They intended this to serve as their last home, but it won't be because of the encroaching sea.”
Projections suggest at least part of one churchyard could be claimed by the sea in the next 80 years, but some locals worry it will happen far earlier. “I think it’s got less than 20 years, if you look at what’s occurred in the last 30 years,” a farmer stated.
A local business owner remembered a childhood visit to the neighbouring settlement of Eccles, which has almost entirely vanished into the sea, including its place of worship and burial ground.
“You could see human remains,” she said. “Certain people hold this romantic idea that the deceased will just get washed out to the ocean. They won’t. People will collect remains as souvenirs and go grave robbing in search of valuables. That is completely undignified.”
“I fear that the same thing that befell at Eccles will happen at Happisburgh and there’ll be skeletons on the shore. I’d be disgusted by that.”
Further up the shoreline lies the grave of a former paratrooper who died while serving overseas. His parent said she could not sleep after discovering her child's final plot 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.”
In her view, new interments should stop but says it is too soon to disturb current plots. “What I would choose for now is to do nothing and closely monitor, but an early decision must be made when a critical moment has been reached.”
The lack of agreement over the timing and method to tackle the problem has resulted in bereaved families feeling exasperated and anxious.
Several families want more coastal protections to slow the unavoidable loss and to allow funerals to proceed for now. Others argue the moment for moving graves is approaching.
“It is very emotional,” a family member stated. “The council’s report was really good, but now there’s confusion about how it is implemented. And all parties is washing their hands over who is responsible.”
A local official said the graveyards were under the care of the local diocese. “In the end it is down to them to choose the path to take. Our role is here to assist them through that process with residents.”
He added there was time to consider all the choices. “We are talking decades before it starts to be lost.”
“There is no common view on what should be done yet. We need productive local conversations to find the right answers for each village.”
The prospect of the loss of the churches and graveyards was described as one of “immense sorrow for the local community,” but faith leaders also referenced a doctrine in life after death, offering a spiritual viewpoint on the temporal disappearance of hallowed earth.
Astrophysicist and space technology consultant with 15 years of experience in lunar mission planning and research.
