Burial or Cremation

This must be a decision that is reached by the immediate family and one that you will not regret six months later. Below are listed some general questions that we are often asked about burial and cremation, if you have others please ask.

Burial Traditional Burials in Cemeteries/Churchyards

• Purchasing a grave for the first time requires careful thought on the location. As a resident, or parishioner if there is a working churchyard, you have an automatic right to be buried in your local cemetery/churchyard.
• If authorities permit, you may be buried in an alternative cemetery out of your area but this will incur extra charges by them as you are a non-resident.
• How many people will the grave ultimately hold? This determines the depth of the grave when first dug.
• It is possible to still have a brick vault if you require.
• Can you select the type of memorial? Yes, but all authorities have guidelines, which must be adhered to, your stonemason will advise you.
• You may be able to pre-purchase grave spaces in cemeteries but the reserving of spaces in churchyards is both difficult and rare.

Woodland Burials

• There are sites that now cater for those people for whom environmental issues are important.
• Burials are all in single graves.
• Coffins are not required.
• Trees are planted instead of traditional memorials.
• Graves can usually be pre-purchased.

Cremation

Some facts about cremation
Bodies are not taken out of coffins before being placed in the cremator. Nothing is allowed to be removed from the exterior or interior of the coffin once the crematorium has received it.

Each person is cremated in individual cremators; the remains left behind are then removed before the next coffin is placed in the cremator.

I hope this deals with those matters clearly and rest assured that should you hear anything to the contrary it is nothing more than misplaced rumour.

Because cremation is the preferred choice of the majority of people, times and days of funerals may be determined by the availability of the crematorium, as well as the extra legislative paperwork that needs to be completed.

The length of time of the service is usually limited to 20 minutes, but this is normally adequate for a traditional Anglican service.

As with a church service you may sing traditional hymns or have alternative music played.

Cremated Remains
There are now many choices. Here are just a few:

1. Scatter them in the garden of remembrance at the crematorium.
2. Have them buried in a cemetery/churchyard in an existing family grave or a new grave where available
3. Bury or scatter them in your own garden.
4. Scatter them in a favourite location.
5. Burial at sea.