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Families of people laid to rest in graves at risk from coastal erosion say that indecision over how to address the problem is creating avoidable anguish about the final resting places of their departed family.

An Impending Danger to Ancient Graveyards

The council have singled out three burial grounds in the communities of Happisburgh, Trimingham, and Mundesley as being in danger of being engulfed by the ocean in the next few generations.

A newly published study on the issue details a series of possible actions, from taking no action to exhuming remains and reburying them in more secure sites. Officials maintain it is for the community to determine how to proceed.

“Right now we’re in a state of uncertainty. It causes me distress. They intended this to be their last home, but it isn’t going to be because of the sea.”

Projections suggest at least part of one churchyard could fall into the sea in the next 80 years, but some locals fear it will happen much sooner. “In my view it’s got less than 20 years, if you consider what’s occurred in the last 30 years,” a farmer stated.

Troubled by the Past

A local business owner remembered a school trip to the neighbouring village of Eccles, which has almost entirely vanished into the sea, along with its place of worship and burial ground.

“You could 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 plundering graves looking for treasures. It’s completely disrespectful.”

“I’m worried that the same thing that happened at Eccles will happen here and there’ll be bones on the beach. I’d be appalled by that.”

A Paratrooper's Resting Place in Jeopardy

Further up the shoreline is situated the grave of a ex-soldier killed while working abroad. His mother said she could not sleep after discovering her son’s grave might one day be relocated.

“It does trouble me to consider this may not remain his lasting 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 premature to exhume current plots. “What I would choose for now is to do nothing and closely monitor, but an early decision must be made when a tipping point has been reached.”

Seeking Answers and Clarity

An absence of consensus over when and how to handle the challenge has left grieving relatives feeling exasperated and worried.

Some are calling for additional coastal protections to delay the unavoidable loss and to permit funerals to proceed for now. Others contend the time for relocation is approaching.

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

A coastal manager confirmed the burial sites were owned and managed of the local diocese. “Ultimately it is up to them to decide the path to take. Our role is here to help support them through that process with residents.”

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

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

The prospect of losing the churches and graveyards was described as one of “profound sadness for the local community,” but faith leaders also referenced a doctrine in life after death, offering a spiritual perspective on the temporal disappearance of sacred ground.