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Loved ones of people buried in graves vulnerable to coastal erosion say that a lack of decision on how best to tackle the problem is causing them unnecessary distress concerning the eternal homes of their departed family.

An Impending Danger to Historic Graveyards

The council have identified three church graveyards in the villages of Happisburgh, Trimingham, and Mundesley as being at risk of being swallowed by the ocean in the coming decades.

A newly published study on the issue sets out a range of options, from doing nothing to disinterring bodies and relocating them in safer sites. Officials maintain it is for the community to decide how to proceed.

“At the moment we’re in limbo. It causes me distress. They wanted this to be their final resting place, but it won't be because of the encroaching sea.”

Projections suggest at least part of one graveyard could fall into the sea in the next 80 years, but some locals worry it will happen far earlier. “I think it’s got under 20 years, if you look at what’s occurred in the last 30 years,” a farmer stated.

Troubled by the Past

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

“It was possible to see people’s bones,” she said. “Certain people hold this idealized notion that the deceased will just get washed out to sea. They won’t. People will collect remains as mementos and go grave robbing looking for valuables. That is completely undignified.”

“I fear that the same thing that happened at Eccles will happen at Happisburgh and there’ll be bones on the beach. I’d be disgusted by that.”

A Paratrooper's Grave in Jeopardy

Along the coast is situated the burial plot of a former paratrooper killed while serving abroad. His mother expressed she could not sleep after discovering her child's final plot might one day be moved.

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

In her view, new interments should stop but says it is too soon to disturb existing graves. “My preference for now is to take no action and watch carefully, but an timely resolution needs to be made when a tipping point has been reached.”

Seeking Solutions and Clarity

An absence of consensus over the timing and method to tackle the problem has resulted in grieving relatives feeling exasperated and worried.

Several families want more sea defences to slow the unavoidable loss and to permit burials to continue for now. Different voices argue the time for moving graves is approaching.

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

A local official said the burial sites were under the care of the local diocese. “Ultimately it is down to them to choose the path to take. We are here to assist them through that process with communities.”

He added there was time to weigh all the options. “This concerns many years before it starts to be lost.”

“There is no common view on what should be done yet. We need productive community discussions to discover the appropriate answers for each community.”

The prospect of the loss of the historic sites was labeled one of “immense sadness for the local community,” but church representatives also spoke of a doctrine in life after death, providing a theological perspective on the temporal disappearance of sacred ground.