Winner of
National Green Apple Award
for Environmental Best Practice 2009
and
Certificate of Excellence from South and South East in Bloom 2009.
Natural burial offers a back to nature form of burial which provides important environmental benefits as well as giving a true sense of creating life from death. This area is not for those who wish to visit a neat and tidy grave and leave floral tributes or have a traditional memorial stone. It is for people who wish to become part of a natural growing process after their death.
The area will be non-denominational and no part of it will be reserved for specific religious groups. It is your choice to have either a religious service, a service personal to the deceased or indeed no service at all.
Bio-degradable coffins will be accepted for burial – wicker, bamboo, wood (from sustainable resources), cardboard etc. Bodies for burial in the woodland must not have been embalmed, except where essential on public health grounds.
The grave will be recorded on a plan and each grave will be numbered. A microchip will be placed at the head of each grave for future identification. Each grave will accommodate a single burial only (there will also be the opportunity to use the plot for ashes interments, if the exclusive right of burial is purchased).
Areas will be available for cremated remains only. These will be poured into a prepared hole without a container and overplanted with wild flowers or bulbs.
NO MEMORIALS of any kind are permitted in the woodland. Funeral flowers will be removed from the grave after approximately two weeks. Floral tributes may not be placed on graves at any other time. The Council reserves the right to remove any item placed on or near a grave without prior notice or right of appeal.
Owing to the layout it will not be possible to reserve a grave. We offer a 30 year Exclusive Right of Burial which can be kept up to this level if relatives so desire. This will enable future ashes interments.
Management of this area requires a different approach to regular grounds maintenance. The area will be disturbed as little as possible as we wish to encourage wild flowers and nature to flourish (a summer meadow has been sown). The neat and tidy appearance of a traditional cemetery does not apply.
As burials progress, the area of the natural burial with it's summer meadow meadow will be planted with a native mix of English woodland trees. Trees will be supplied by the Council and appropriately spaced to form a woodland canopy for the future. It is envisaged that the maturing woodland and wild flowers will create a haven of peace and tranquillity for future generations to enjoy.
Especially in June and July there is a profusion of red, yellow, blue and white wildfowers which are a magnet to local wildlife.
Please give careful consideration to the restrictions in this section before deciding on this burial option. The rules will be strictly adhered to.
Cemeteries Service, 2 Penner Road, Havant, Hampshire,PO9 1QH.
Telephone 023 9244 6425
E-mail: cemeteries@havant.gov.uk