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Woodland Burial - A natural alternative

Article by Keith Gillison

If you have recently made a will or are planning to, you may have been asked to consider what funeral arrangements you would prefer made to ensure your family and friends know of your wishes. With increasing demands for more individual funerals and the attraction of countryside surroundings, more people are preferring a woodland burial.

What is Woodland Burial ?

Woodland burial is a natural alternative to the traditional funeral - planting trees as living memorials to grow woodlands in rural areas of natural beauty and allowing families to have a service which they feel is most appropriate to their loved ones wishes, whether religious or non-religious.

How popular is woodland burial ?

As an example of woodland burial popularity, Hinton Park woodland burial ground in the Christchurch New Forest of Dorset has been in

existence for nearly 7 years and during this time has carried out over 850 burials with a further 3,000 burial plots being pre-purchased for future burials. This has led to them opening a new Woodland Burial site at Colehill, near Wimborne.

So What should you know about woodland burial?

There are 4 main differences between woodland burial and the traditional funeral.

1. Trees planted - Woodland burials plant trees as living memorials after the burial and do not use headstones. The trees produce growing woodland for the years ahead. There is usually a wide choice of various trees and many woodland burial grounds also have small name plaques to go with the tree.

2. Location & surroundings - Woodland Burial Grounds are set in areas of natural countryside and for many families the woodland surroundings help make their sad situation that little bit easier. The burial grounds support an array of wildlife and some have added features such as Hinton Park in Christchurch which has a deer paddock, Shetland pony fields and a lake.

3. Style of service - Services are arranged in strict accordance with the wishes of the deceased and their families. Services can be traditional religious services or more tailored to an individuals or families wishes. If they wish, families can organise and conduct the funeral service themselves or make very specific requests about how they would like the service to be. Meeting family wishes produces very different types of burial service. Hinton Park for example has arranged traditional religious services and more unique requests such as bagpipes playing in the distance, poetry and music.

4. Costs - A traditional burial today costs on average £1657, excluding the headstone (Daily Mirror 5/9/01). A traditional cremation costs around £1,100. Woodland Burials cost on average between £600 and £1,200 depending on location and whether the burial ground performs the duties of the traditional funeral director. If the woodland burial ground make the arrangements themselves without another funeral director the total cost will usually be less as only one organisation is involved. Some woodland burial grounds also arrange cremation, costs for this vary but are usually less than £800.

For more information about woodland burial throughout the UK, contact the Natural Death Centre on 0208 208 2853.

Web Site for the Natural Death Centre is:- www.naturaldeath.org.uk

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