Families' Heartache Over Coastal Degradation Threatening Coastal Norfolk Burial Sites
Families whose relatives laid to rest in resting places at risk from shoreline retreat argue that a lack of decision over how to tackle the issue is causing them avoidable anguish about the eternal homes of their loved ones.
An Impending Threat to Historic 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 next few generations.
A recent report on the situation sets out a range of possible actions, from doing nothing to disinterring bodies and relocating them in more secure sites. Authorities maintain it is for local people to decide how to proceed.
“Right now we’re in a state of uncertainty. It upsets me. They intended this to be their last home, but it isn’t going to be because of the sea.”
Projections suggest at least a portion of one churchyard could fall into the waves in the next 80 years, but some locals worry it will happen much sooner. “I think it’s got less than 20 years, if you look at what’s happened in the last 30 years,” one said.
Troubled by the Past
A local business owner remembered a school trip to the nearby village of Eccles, which has largely disappeared into the water, along with its church and graveyard.
“It was possible to see human remains,” she said. “Certain people hold this idealized notion that the deceased will just get washed out to the ocean. That is not the case. People will collect remains as souvenirs and go plundering graves looking for valuables. That is completely undignified.”
“I’m worried that the same thing that happened at Eccles will occur here and there’ll be skeletons on the shore. I’d be disgusted by that.”
A Paratrooper's Resting Place in Peril
Along the shoreline is situated the burial plot of a former paratrooper who died while serving overseas. His mother said she could not sleep after learning her child's grave might one day be relocated.
“It truly trouble me to consider this won’t be his lasting resting place,” she said. “For us it’s an important site to visit.”
She believes, new interments should cease 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 must be made when a critical moment has been reached.”
Seeking Answers and Clarity
An absence of consensus over the timing and method to handle the challenge has resulted in bereaved families feeling frustrated and worried.
Some want additional sea defences to slow the unavoidable loss and to allow funerals to proceed for now. Different voices contend the time for relocation is approaching.
“The situation is very emotional,” said one relative. “The council’s report was thorough, but now there’s confusion about how it is taken forward. And everybody is washing their hands over who is accountable.”
A local official said the graveyards were under the care of the local diocese. “In the end it is up to them to choose the direction to take. We are here to help support them through that journey with residents.”
It was also stated there was ample time to weigh all the choices. “This concerns many years 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 solutions for each community.”
The possibility of losing the churches and graveyards was labeled one of “immense sorrow for the local community,” but church representatives also spoke of a doctrine in resurrection, providing a theological viewpoint on the temporal disappearance of sacred ground.