Best Burial Ground in the UK 2017
This category could so easily be about the best kept lawn cemetery, or the most attractive natural burial ground, but this year the judges were unanimously persuaded by the passion of the manager who entered for the award in choosing the winner. Ultimately, it is the care and dedication of the people involved with a […]
Funeral poverty anyone?
‘High level return on investment within 2 to 5 years’ 2,500 plots available to investors Plot price to investors £2,400 High level return within two to five years Plots are valued at over £3,750 Clearly defined exit strategy Minimum investment is 4 plots ‘A very rare opportunity has arisen to purchase burial plots in London’s […]
Cemetery of the Year
Mohamed Omer from Gardens of Peace Muslim Cemetery Against all the odds the Trustees of the Gardens of Peace have transformed wasteland into a beautiful and sustainable burial ground. The story of the creation of the Gardens of Peace is one of gentle heroism. The shortage of burial space in and around London is of […]
Keeping an eye on the costs
Hats off to independent funeral booking website Funeralbooker for publishing their findings on the costs of funeral disbursements. Funeral poverty shows no sign of abating as new data reveals the most expensive crematoria and cemeteries in the UK Key points: THE COST OF DYING CONTINUES TO RISE. NEW DATA REVEALS THE SOUTH OF […]
Wag goodbye to his lordship
Lord Avebury, the Liberal Democrat peer who died on Valentine’s day was noted for the eccentricity of some of his views. He was a conventional supporter of assisted suicide but his expressed preferences for his disposal raised eyebrows. He was the only person to have his body rejected by Battersea Dogs Home. A keen environmentalist, […]
Packed to the rafters
One night in the early 1700s, Henry Trigg was making his way home when he heard a disturbance in the churchyard. Looking closer, he saw, to his horror of course, grave-robbers making off with a freshly-buried corpse. He continued on his way, resolving never to let the same thing happen to him. (He isn’t reported to have tried […]
The makes-you-proud-to-be-British way of death
Alice Pitman, in the Christmas edition of the Oldie magazine, describes her extremely unwell 88 year-old mother rising to the occasion in hospital: Eventually a porter came and perfunctorily wheeled her to theatre. [We] followed down an interminably long corridor, the Aged P issuing instructions over her shoulder about what we were to do if […]
Corpse roads – then and now
Back in the middle ages, established churches hung on to their right to bury the dead when new churches were built nearby to serve a growing population. Burial rights brought in revenue. This meant that parishioners of churches without a right to bury their dead were compelled to take them to a church which did […]
Where do you want to be buried?
Posted by Richard Rawlinson I’m extending the Easter holiday with a visit to a village in Bordeaux, where my friends’ house overlooks the graveyard of a Medieval church. With death oft going unseen and unspoken in our secular times, a graveyard is a reminder of our mortality, prompting us to contemplate the inevitable final day, […]
Origins of sayings #1 – Everyone wants a piece of him
A number of popular sayings derive from death and funerals. One such is the saying ‘Everyone wants a piece of him’. This is a surprisingly ancient saying dating back 800 years. Here’s how it happened. When Richard I (Lionheart) died, his entrails were interred in the central French town of Chalus, where he died in a […]
