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Loved ones of people buried in resting places at risk from coastal erosion argue that indecision over how to address the issue is creating avoidable anguish about the eternal homes of their departed family.

A Looming Threat to Ancient Graveyards

Local authorities have identified three church graveyards in the villages of Happisburgh, Trimingham, and Mundesley as being in danger of being swallowed by the ocean in the next few generations.

A newly published study on the issue details a range of possible actions, from taking no action to disinterring bodies and reburying them in more secure sites. Authorities maintain it is for the community to decide how to proceed.

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

Estimates suggest at least part of one churchyard could fall into the sea in the next 80 years, but some locals fear it will happen far earlier. “I think it’s got less than 20 years, if you consider what’s happened in the last 30 years,” one said.

Troubled by the Past

One resident recalled a school trip to the neighbouring settlement of Eccles, which has largely vanished into the water, including its church and graveyard.

“You could see people’s bones,” she said. “Certain people hold this romantic idea that people’s remains will just get washed out to the ocean. They won’t. Individuals will take bones as souvenirs and go plundering graves in search of treasures. It’s completely disrespectful.”

“I’m worried that the identical fate that happened at Eccles will occur at Happisburgh and there’ll be skeletons on the shore. I would feel appalled by that.”

A Paratrooper's Grave in Jeopardy

Further up the shoreline is situated the burial plot of a former paratrooper killed while serving abroad. His parent expressed she lost sleep after learning her child's final plot might one day be moved.

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

She believes, new burials should stop but says it is too soon to exhume existing graves. “What I would choose for now is to do nothing and watch carefully, but an timely resolution needs to be made when a tipping point has been attained.”

Searching for Solutions and Clarity

An absence of consensus over when and how to tackle the challenge has resulted in bereaved families feeling exasperated and anxious.

Several families want more coastal protections to delay the inevitable erosion and to allow funerals to continue for now. Different voices contend the moment for relocation is approaching.

“The situation is very emotive,” said one relative. “The official study was thorough, but now there’s confusion about how it is implemented. And all parties is avoiding responsibility over who is accountable.”

A local official confirmed the graveyards were owned and managed of the local diocese. “Ultimately it is down to them to choose the path to take. We are here to help support them through that process with residents.”

He added there was time to weigh all the choices. “We are talking decades before it begins getting lost.”

“Currently, there exists no common view on what should happen yet. It requires productive local conversations to discover the appropriate answers for each community.”

The possibility of the loss of the churches and graveyards was described as one of “immense sorrow for the local community,” but church representatives also spoke of a doctrine in life after death, providing a theological viewpoint on the physical loss of sacred ground.