Table Of ContentNatural Burial
This book unravels the many different experiences, meanings and realities of natural burial. Twenty
years after the first natural burial ground opened, there is an opportunity to reflect on how a concept
for a very different approach to caring for our dead has become a reality: new providers, new landscapes
and a hybrid of new and traditional rituals. In this short time the Natural Burial Movement has flour-
ished. In the UK there are more than 200 sites, and the concept has travelled to North America, Holland,
Australia, New Zealand and Japan.
This survey of natural burials draws on interviews with those involved in the natural burial process
– including burial ground managers, celebrants, priests, bereaved family, funeral directors – providing a
variety of viewpoints on the concept as a philosophy and landscape practice. Site surveys, design plans
and case studies illustrate the challenges involved in creating a natural burial site, and a key longitudinal
case study of a single site investigates the evolving nature of the practice.
Natural Burial is the first book on this subject to bring together all the groups involved in the prac-
tice, explaining the facts behind this type of burial and exploring a topic which is attracting significant
media interest and an upsurge of sites internationally.
Andy Clayden is a Senior Lecturer and Landscape Architect in the Department of Landscape, Sheffield
University. His research focuses on the temporal and dynamic nature of landscape, which has had a
major influence on his design teaching and how people experience and engage with the natural burial
and cemetery landscape.
Trish Green is a Research Fellow at the University of Hull. Her main academic interests lie in the rela-
tional aspects of life course transitions, ageing and gendered subjectivities, and the emotional meanings
of time, space and place. She has conducted research and co-authored several articles on natural burial.
Jenny Hockey trained as an anthropologist and is Emeritus Professor of Sociology at Sheffield University.
Widely published in Death Studies, she was founding president of the Association for the Study of Death
and Society and remains a member of the editorial board of Mortality, the European Journal of Death
Studies.
Mark Powell trained in social anthropology at the Queen’s University, Belfast. His research focuses on
the relationship between social identity, cultural belonging and environments. Based at the School of
Civil Engineering and Geosciences, Newcastle University, he works across disciplines to investigate the
social and cultural dimensions of hard infrastructural environments.
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Natural Burial
Landscape, practice and experience
Andy Clayden, Trish Green, Jenny Hockey and Mark Powell
First published 2015
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2015 Andy Clayden, Trish Green, Jenny Hockey and Mark Powell
The right of Andy Clayden, Trish Green, Jenny Hockey and Mark Powell
to be identified as authors of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with
sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
Every effort has been made to contact and acknowledge copyright owners. If any material
has been included without permission, the publishers offer their apologies. The publishers
would be pleased to have any errors or omissions brought to their attention so that
corrections may be published at a later printing.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any
form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented,
including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system,
without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered
trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to
infringe.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Clayden, Andy.
Natural burial : landscape, practice and experience / Andy Clayden, Trish Green,
Jenny Hockey and Mark Powell.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Burial–Great Britain. 2. Funeral rites and ceremonies–Great Britain. 3. Landscape
design–Great Britain. I. Title.
GT3243.C56 2014
393'.1–dc23
2013047923
ISBN: 978-0-415-63168-6 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-415-63169-3 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-77169-4 (ebk)
Typeset in Sabon by
Servis Filmsetting Ltd, Stockport, Cheshire
Contents
List of figures ix
Acknowledgements xiii
1 Introduction 1
Digging deeper 3
The fate of the body 5
Back to nature? 10
Hallowed ground? 12
2 The inception and development of natural burial in the UK 17
From environmental conservation to natural burial 18
Woodland burial as practice 25
The UK and its emerging natural burial landscape 27
Distribution of UK natural burial sites 28
Distribution of sites by ownership and design interpretation 28
Emerging trends in ownership and design interpretation 1993–2010 33
2010 onwards 37
International context of natural burial 38
Demand for natural burial in the UK 39
Summary 42
3 The landscape of natural burial and motivations of providers 45
Setting the scene: introduction to the four research sites 46
Site one: Woodland Burial Ground, Wisewood Cemetery, Sheffield, South Yorkshire. 46
Site two: Green Lane Burial Field and Nature Reserve, Abermule, Montgomery,
Mid Wales 49
Site three: South Yorkshire Woodland Burial Ground, Ulley, Rotherham, South
Yorkshire 50
Site four: South Downs Natural Burial Site, the Sustainability Centre, East Meon,
Petersfield, Hampshire 53
What is the motivation to open a natural burial ground? 56
Local authorities 57
Farmers 59
Funeral directors 60
Charitable trusts 62
Independent landowners 63
Private companies 64
Summary 65
4 Designing and making the natural burial ground 67
Finding the grave in nature 69
Designing for nature 77
New woodland burial 77
Woodland through burial: sequential, dispersed, grove and scattered models of
design 78
vi CONTENTS
Woodland independent of burial 84
Mature woodland burial 85
Wildflower meadow burial 88
Memorialisation in the absence of a headstone 89
Servicing the natural burial ground: buildings, thresholds and processions 92
Summary 95
5 Ethnography of a natural burial ground 97
Inhabiting the burial ground 97
Introducing bereaved people to East Meon 99
Digging the grave 101
Funeral days 102
Procession 106
Committal and backfilling the grave 108
Memorial landscapes: a place for bereaved people 112
Burial ground communities 113
Summary 114
6 Choosing, doing and living with natural burial 117
Four natural burial journeys after bereavement 118
Ros Eastman, East Meon 118
Allan Holbrook, Abermule 123
Maggie Carter, Ulley 129
Marie Cooper, Wisewood 134
Summary 137
7 Natural burial: new endings, old habits? 139
Funeral directors’ perceptions and experiences 140
Promoting natural burial to bereaved people 143
Delivering the funeral 144
Time and emotion 145
All dressed in black? 146
Keeping their distance? 148
The body: between death and burial 148
Celebrants’ perceptions and experiences 150
Engaging with natural burial 150
Meeting the needs of bereaved people 152
Working in the natural burial ground 154
Summary 158
8 Ulley: natural burial through time 161
Part I: creating a woodland 163
Grave and woodland distribution 164
Changing woodland character 168
Part II: observing and inhabiting the burial ground 171
Winter, spring, summer and autumn: the changing year 171
Winter 171
Spring 176
Summer 179
Autumn 182
The grave 184
CONTENTS vii
9 Conclusion 193
From landscape to loss 194
Regulation, enchantment, ecology and identity 195
The future 200
Notes 203
References 211
Index 217
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Figures
2.1 Conservation area at Carlisle cemetery, where grass cutting has been reduced
from 16 cuts to 1 cut per year 18
2.2 Plan of Carlisle woodland burial area showing its relationship to the existing
cemetery outside the cemetery wall and hedge 20
2.3 The entrance to the woodland burial area shows the contrast between the more
formal mown cemetery and woodland section that lies beyond the Victorian
brick wall and hedge 21
2.4 A stone sheepfold, set apart from the woodland and accessed by an informal
path, creates a sheltered seating space where memorial plaques and floral tributes
can be displayed without intruding on the woodland 22
2.5 Waldfriedhof Woodland Cemetery in Munich, Germany 23
2.6 The design for a new cemetery at Saddleworth, near Oldham, by landscape
Architect Robert Camlin 24
2.7 The location of all UK natural burial sites in September 2010 29
2.8 The different ownership of different natural burial sites and their distribution
across the UK 30
2.9 The different design interpretations of natural burial sites and how these are
distributed across the UK 31
2.10–2.11 Graphs showing the percentage of all UK natural burial grounds by
ownership and type 32
2.12 Graph showing the total number and ownership of natural burial grounds
in five-year intervals from 1993 to 2007 and a three-year interval from 2008 to
2010 34
2.13 Graph showing the total number and type of natural burial grounds in five-year
intervals from 1993 to 2007 and a three-year interval from 2008 to 2010 35
2.14 Burial data from ten natural burial sites shows an increase in demand for natural
burial and a growing proportion of ash interments 41
2.15 Graph showing the average number of burials at ten English natural burial sites
2002–2007 42
3.1 Wisewood Woodland Burial Ground, Wisewood Cemetery, Sheffield 46
3.2 View looking towards the Woodland Burial section and wooded valley beyond,
across an area of traditional graves 47
3.3 A neat lawn has been maintained around the grave and a small wooden
home-made bench has been placed beside it 48
3.4 Green Lane Burial Field, Abermule 49
3.5 Looking out from the top of the field, near to the lane that separates the burial
ground from the farm 50
3.6 South Yorkshire Woodland Burial Ground, Ulley 51
3.7 At the entrance to the burial ground there is a large sign and a car park which
has recently been landscaped to increase the available parking 52
3.8 The entrance to the burial ground from the car park is defined by two yew trees 53
3.9 South Downs Natural Burial Site, East Meon 54
3.10 Walking down to the burial ground, visitors pass the camping field with its
collection of timber-frame buildings, tipis and yurts 55
