A few weeks ago, I had the delightful pleasure of meeting award winning grave digger, Jonny Yaxley. He has been written about plenty of times, and with good reason. The Guardian newspaper also ran a fabulous piece about him recently, which is well worth reading.
When you meet Jonny, the first impression is warmth and humour. He is simply wonderful, and cares deeply about what he does. The connection to nature is, to excuse the pun, in his bones and I could have chatted to him for hours. Maybe one day we’ll enjoy a beer or two together.
There is a distinction to be made between a funeral, and what happens next, and the decision most people make nowadays is to choose cremation. Cremation has seen a dramatic transformation in the last 60 years, with Britain moving sharply from a burial culture to cremation.
Burials in conventional cemeteries have steadily declined with only about 20% making that choice. There are all sorts of reasons for this shift, from increasing secularization to urban land pressure, the flexibility of service and what can be done with ashes.
However, the natural burial or woodland burial is enjoying a gentle surge in interest and has grown from about 1% to 3% of burials over the last few years.
Around 300 natural sites exist in the UK, and over 60% of councils now offer, or plan to offer woodland burial areas, responding to this steady rise in popularity.
If you have not considered a natural burial, do visit a site near you. You will find the warmest welcome, and there is something particularly powerful about the idea of a return to nature.
https://www.leedam.com/natural-burial-in-henley-on-thames/
https://naturalburialalliance.co.uk/natural-burial-grounds