Mass grave with 119 sailors' bodies may have to be moved due to erosion risk on crumbling coastline
Officials believe they may have to exhume remains from the grounds of Happisburgh's St Mary the Virgin church in Norfolk, as coastal erosion has left just 80 metres of land between the church and the retreating cliff edge.
At the current rate of coastal erosion, this means the cemetery could be lost to the sea in less than 20 years.
The rector, The Rev Coryn Stanforth, said the next steps must be taken sensitively.
"This is a really stressful time for the people who live locally and for those who've got loved ones buried in the churchyard here," she said.
"As a church, we're trying to offer as much support to people as possible at what is a really difficult time for them."
Buried in the Norfolk churchyard is the grave of 119 sailors who were on HMS Invincible headed for Nelson's fleet in March 1801, when it ran into difficulties near Happisburgh Sands.
Some 400 sailors perished in one of Britain's worst maritime disasters.
North Norfolk District Council is now working with the government, the local community and the Diocese of Norwich to find solutions.
The authorities are working with the government-backed Coastwise scheme, which aims to prepare coastal communities threatened by erosion.
It has commissioned a report to investigate the relocation of bodies from cemeteries and graveyards at risk of being lost to the sea, with Happisburgh a test case, to establish how such a large-scale relocation might be possible.
"The problem here is that the sea is getting higher owing to global warming," said councillor Harry Blathwayt of North Norfolk District Council.
"Erosion is accelerating because of global warming and we need to make plans so we're planning ahead for the whole country and hopefully people will be able to know that we are taking steps that we'll save their loved ones for the future."
The fate facing the 15th-century church and graveyard has been raised during meetings with villagers and the Diocese of Norwich, which has responsibility for the site.
As part of the talks, parishioners are considering decommissioning the graveyard so no more burials can take place there.
Officials would want to avoid the fate of Dunwich in Suffolk, where erosion led to skeletons sticking out of the dunes after plots were washed away by the sea in the 1920s.
The entire Suffolk town and its eight churches were lost to the sea.
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