Natural burial : landscape, practice and experience / Andy Clayden, Trish Green, Jenny Hockey and Mark Powell.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Clayden, Andy.

Contributor:

Green, Trish.

Hockey, Jennifer Lorna.

Powell, Mark (Social anthropologist)

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Burial--Great Britain.

Burial.

Funeral rites and ceremonies--Great Britain.

Funeral rites and ceremonies.

Landscape design--Great Britain.

Landscape design.

Great Britain.

Physical Description:

xii, 219 pages : color illustrations ; 26 cm

Place of Publication:

New York : Routledge, 2015.

Summary:

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 flourished. In the UK there are more the 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 and 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 and individuals involved in the practice, explaining the facts behind this type of burial and exploring a topic which is attracting significant media interest and an upsurge of sites internationally. Book jacket.

Contents:

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 1 Woodland Burial Ground, Wisewood Cemetery, Sheffield, South Yorkshire 46

Site 2 Green Lane Burial Field and Nature Reserve, Abermule, Montgomery, Mid Wales 49

Site 3 South Yorkshire Woodland Burial Ground, Ulley, Rotherham, South Yorkshire 50

Site 4 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 64

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

Woodland independent of burial 84

Mature woodland burial 85

Wildflower meadow burial 88

Memorialisation in the absence of 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

9 Conclusion 193

From landscape to loss 194

Regulation, enchantment, ecology and identity 195

The future 200.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Other Format:

Online version: Clayden, Andy. Natural burial.

ISBN:

9780415631686

0415631688

9780415631693

0415631696

OCLC:

867024508