Families' Heartache Regarding Shoreline Erosion Threatening Coastal Norfolk Graves

Families of people laid to rest in resting places at risk from coastal erosion say that indecision on how best to address the problem is causing them avoidable anguish about the final resting places of their departed family.

A Looming Danger to Ancient Graveyards

Local authorities have identified three burial grounds in the communities of Happisburgh, Trimingham, and Mundesley as being in danger of being swallowed by the ocean in the coming decades.

A recent report on the issue details a series of options, from taking no action to exhuming remains and relocating them in safer sites. Authorities say it is for local people to determine how to proceed.

“Right now we’re in a state of uncertainty. It upsets me. My parents intended this to serve as their last home, but it isn’t going to be because of the encroaching sea.”

Projections suggest at least part of one graveyard could be claimed by the sea in the next 80 years, but some residents fear 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 school trip to the nearby village of Eccles, which has almost entirely vanished into the water, along with its place of worship and burial ground.

“You could see people’s bones,” she said. “Some have this romantic idea that people’s remains will just get washed out to sea. They won’t. People will take bones as souvenirs and go grave robbing in search of treasures. It’s completely disrespectful.”

“I fear that the identical fate that befell at Eccles will happen at Happisburgh and there’ll be skeletons on the shore. I would feel disgusted by that.”

A Soldier's Resting Place in Peril

Along the coast is situated the burial plot of a ex-soldier who died while serving abroad. His parent said she lost sleep after learning her child's final plot might one day be relocated.

“It does trouble me to consider this may not remain his permanent resting place,” she said. “To our family it’s an significant place to go.”

She believes, new interments should cease but says it is premature to exhume current plots. “My preference for now is to take no action and closely monitor, but an timely resolution needs to be made when a critical moment has been reached.”

Searching for Answers and Certainty

The lack of agreement over the timing and method to tackle the problem has resulted in grieving relatives feeling frustrated and worried.

Some want more coastal protections to delay the inevitable erosion and to allow burials to proceed for now. Different voices contend the time for relocation is drawing near.

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

A local official confirmed the burial sites were owned and managed of the local diocese. “Ultimately it is down to them to decide the path to take. We are here to assist them through that journey with residents.”

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

“There is no unified opinion on what should happen yet. We need good local conversations to discover the appropriate solutions for each community.”

The prospect of losing the historic sites was described as one of “immense sorrow for the area,” but faith leaders also spoke of a belief in life after death, providing a theological perspective on the physical loss of sacred ground.