Relatives' Heartache Regarding Coastal Degradation Endangering Coastal Norfolk Graves
Families whose relatives buried in resting places at risk from shoreline retreat say that a lack of decision over how to tackle the problem is causing them avoidable anguish about the eternal homes of their loved ones.
A Looming Threat to Ancient Graveyards
The council have singled out three burial grounds in the communities of Happisburgh, Trimingham, and Mundesley as being at risk of being consumed by the ocean in the coming decades.
A newly published study on the situation details a range of possible actions, from doing nothing to disinterring bodies and relocating them in safer locations. Officials say it is for local people to determine 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 isn’t going to be because of the encroaching sea.”
Projections suggest at least a portion of one graveyard could be claimed by the waves in the next 80 years, but some residents fear it will happen far earlier. “I think it’s got under 20 years, if you consider what’s occurred in the last 30 years,” one said.
Haunted by the Past
A local business owner recalled a school trip to the neighbouring settlement of Eccles, which has almost entirely disappeared into the sea, including its place of worship and burial ground.
“You could see human remains,” she said. “Some have this romantic idea that people’s remains will just get washed out to sea. That is not the case. People will take bones as souvenirs and go grave robbing looking for valuables. That is completely disrespectful.”
“I fear that the identical fate that happened at Eccles will occur at Happisburgh and there’ll be bones on the beach. I would feel appalled by that.”
A Soldier's Resting Place in Jeopardy
Along the shoreline is situated the burial plot of a former paratrooper killed while serving overseas. His parent said she could not sleep after discovering her child's final plot might one day be relocated.
“It does trouble me to consider this won’t be his permanent resting place,” she said. “To our family it’s an important place to go.”
In her view, new interments should stop but says it is too soon to disturb existing graves. “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 Answers and Certainty
An absence of consensus over the timing and method to tackle the challenge has left bereaved families feeling exasperated and worried.
Some want additional sea defences to slow the unavoidable loss and to permit funerals to continue for now. Different voices argue the time for moving graves is drawing near.
“It is very emotive,” said one relative. “The official study was really good, but now there’s uncertainty about how it is taken forward. And all parties is washing their hands over who is responsible.”
A coastal manager said the graveyards were owned and managed of the church authorities. “In the end it is up to them to choose the path to take. Our role is here to assist them through that journey with residents.”
He added there was time to weigh all the choices. “We are talking many years before it starts to be lost.”
“There is no common view on what should be done yet. It requires productive local conversations to discover the right answers for each community.”
The prospect of the loss of the historic sites was labeled one of “profound sadness for the area,” but faith leaders also spoke of a belief in life after death, offering a theological perspective on the temporal loss of sacred ground.
