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Loved ones of people buried in graves at risk from shoreline retreat argue that a lack of decision on how best to tackle the problem is creating avoidable anguish about the final resting places of their departed family.

An Impending Threat to Historic Churchyards

The council have singled out three church graveyards in the communities of Happisburgh, Mundesley, and Trimingham as being at risk of being consumed by the ocean in the next few generations.

A newly published study on the situation details a series of possible actions, from taking no action to exhuming remains and relocating them in more secure sites. Officials say it is for the community to decide how to move forward.

“At the moment we’re in limbo. It causes me distress. My parents wanted this to serve as their last home, but it won't be because of the encroaching sea.”

Projections suggest at least part of one graveyard could fall into the waves in the next 80 years, but some locals 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,” a farmer stated.

Haunted by the Past

A local business owner remembered a school trip to the nearby village of Eccles, which has largely vanished into the water, including its place of worship and burial ground.

“You could see people’s bones,” she said. “Certain people hold this romantic idea that the deceased will just get washed out to the ocean. They won’t. People will collect remains as souvenirs and go grave robbing in search of treasures. That is completely disrespectful.”

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

A Soldier's Resting Place in Peril

Along the coast is situated the burial plot of a former paratrooper who died while serving overseas. His parent expressed she lost sleep after discovering her son’s final plot might one day be relocated.

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

In her view, new interments should stop but says it is too soon to disturb current plots. “What I would choose for now is to take no action and watch carefully, but an timely resolution needs to be made when a tipping point has been attained.”

Seeking Solutions and Certainty

An absence of agreement over when and how to tackle the problem has resulted in bereaved families feeling exasperated and worried.

Some want more coastal protections to delay the unavoidable loss and to allow burials to continue for now. Others argue the moment for moving graves is approaching.

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

A local official said the graveyards were owned and managed of the church authorities. “In the end it is up to them to decide the direction to take. We are here to assist them through that journey with communities.”

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 good community discussions to find the appropriate answers for each village.”

The prospect of losing the churches and graveyards was labeled one of “profound sorrow for the local community,” but church representatives also referenced a doctrine in resurrection, offering a spiritual perspective on the temporal disappearance of sacred ground.