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How to arrange a burial

At Thoulstone Park Natural Burial Meadow we accept full coffin/shroud burials and ashes *interments.

Before the burial

  • If you haven't already visited The Meadow at Thoulstone Park, then we suggest you do so at your earliest convenience by contacting Mary to arrange a suitable time.

  • Download our Information Pack (link below).  This includes all the relevant forms you will need to proceed and all of the following information should you prefer to download and read a printed version.

  • Once a death has been certified a representative (the 'applicant') would let Mary know the following informaiton;

    • the name of the deceased

    • a preferred date for the funeral

    • their own contact details

    • any prior purchase information such as a reserved plot. 

This can be done by submitting the contact form below or by calling her.

  • You will need to decide if you would like to make the arrangements yourselves or ask a funeral director to do this.  We have a list of funeral directors & advisors who adhere to our 'code of conduct' with regards to coffin & shroud manufacture and embalming prohibitions.  If you choose to arrange the burial yourselves, please take some time to familiarise yourselves with what is involved, you will find a wealth of information on the Natural Death Centre website.

  • Provisional confirmation - Burials take place Monday to Friday excluding public holidays between the hours of 10 am and 3 pm in summer and 10 am and 2 pm in winter.  Saturday by special arrangement, additional charges will apply. If the preferred date is free and the gravedigger is available, you would be informed of any events at Thoulstone Park which may affect your decision.  If we are all in agreement, we would provisionally confirm the booking. 

  • Submit relevant forms - Our burial rights and interment form, can be downloaded with our information pack and needs to be completed by the applicant, this is the person who is responsible for any further contact.  This form gives us all of the details we need to proceed with a burial and this should be completed as soon as possible, at least three days before the event.

  • Alongside your interment form, we need the following documents where relevant, scanned and emailed to Mary in order to proceed - 

    • a copy of the Registrar’s Certificate for burial or cremation (Green form).

    • A cremation certificate for ashes interment.

    • Coroners order for burial if necessary.

  • Full payment is required by bank transfer before a burial or ashes interment can take place.  A receipt will be issued to confirm all in order.   Our price list can be found here​

  • Once payment is confirmed , the applicant will be sent a letter detailing ‘What to expect on the day’ information such as, where to meet and any advice such as suitable clothing and footwear.   They will be given and asked to share information relevant to the day such as to bring foldable chairs for those who may have trouble standing and instruction on parking for those less able.

  • Choose your ancillary services from our list of recommended local providers, coffin and shroud producers, celebrants and florists.  Alternatively you may have a personal connection or choose to do your flowers or lead the ceremony yourselves.  You can obviously let a funeral director do all of this for you or personalise as much as you please.  A good funeral director should allow you make these choices if important to you.  Please note any funeral director you choose must adhere to our ‘code of conduct’

  • Grave digging and preparation for interment - We need to know the exact true measurements of the coffin or ashes casket to give to the grave digger.  This information will be requested on the interment form.  The grave will be prepared by our grave digger at a depth of 1.3 metres generally the day before and for ashes 0.5 metres. 

  • Wakes can be arranged in various formats at Thoulstone Park and would be booked directly with the venue. 

    • The Pavillion Café – who offer a hot or cold finger buffet. Email

    • Hire of the Range for a more formal event - Thoulstone Park Email

    • Hire of the Marquee for the ceremony and/or wake - Thoulstone Park Email

    • A simple picnic in the Glade either catered for by the Pavillion or bring your own. Arranged through Thoulstone Park Email and catered for by The Pavillion Cafe

  • Embalming involves preserving the body with chemicals and is generally incompatible with natural burial due to its environmental impact.  We would only accept embalmed remains in exceptional circumstances, e.g. repatriation​.​

  • Plot allocation and reservation of an adjacent plot - Our plots are available as single-depth.  Double plots are available arranged side by side, offering families the option of adjacent graves.  For double plots, payment for the second plot may be made in full or through a monthly standing order over 10 or 20 months. Please note that an additional administration charge applies to instalment plans.  If undecided, we can provisionally reserve it for 1 year, after which it may be offered to others.  We will allocate plots unless a reserved plot is required.  Religious burial directional requirements will be honoured.  The plot will be located for you if you would like to visit before the day of the burial.

  • The death of a child is something no parent should have to deal with.  You may choose to enlist the services of a funeral director to support you, but we are here to help in any way we can if you choose not to.  The cost of the plot and grave digging are covered by the Children's Funeral Fund for England. You will find more information www.gov.uk/child-funeral-costs.  We or a funeral director can claim this back on your behalf. Only administrative costs and optional services are payable.

Before the burial
​On the day of the burial

  • The funeral party will be met in the main Thoulstone Park car park and shown where to go relevant to their choice of proceedings, i.e. graveside or gathering area ceremony.  Mary will remain on hand at all times.

  • If arranged by a funeral director, they would generally manage proceedings with regards to the hearse, carrying the coffin and instructing any relatives in how to do this if appropriate.  If no funeral director involved, then Mary would assist with this.

  • If the family choose to, they can assist with back filling the soil, this process will be finished off by the grave digger and the turf re-laid.  You may wish to add petals or flowers into the grave before interment.

  • Ceremonies can be held either at the graveside or in the existing mown gathering area that overlooks the meadow.  There is a small, covered area with a firepit that can be used should the weather be against you.  There will be no time limit on these areas other than the park opening hours although an estimate of time will have been requested on the Interment form.  If one of our partner venues have been pre-booked, then time constraints may apply.

  • Dogs can offer great comfort at funerals and are allowed in the Meadow but must be kept on a lead at all times as sheep are free to graze.  Please clear up any waste.  A pet's ashes may be included at the time of interment at no extra cost, this must be stated on the interment form.

  • Music - there is no power at the burial meadow or the gathering area so please ensure your speaker system is loud enough to be clearly heard.  Acoustic music is always a beautiful accompaniment to a ceremony.

  • Sensible attire - Please bear in mind that you are walking into a meadow via a mown sloping path from the gathering area, so suitable footwear is a must and sensible clothing to cater for our British weather.  As Alfred Wainwright once said, 'There is no such thing as bad weather, only unsuitable clothing'.

  • Tributes - floral tributes or other objects can be placed inside the grave with the coffin/shroud or ashes casket but nothing non-biodegradable - no plastic, wire or oasis is permitted.  Why not take your flowers home with you to enjoy!  A simple posy of flowers can be left on the grave as long as the strict guidelines of point no 11 of Burial Ground R&R's have been adhered to.

On the day of the burial
​After the event​

  • ​Mary will email the applicant with the following;

    • Two copies of the Certificate of Interment which will include the exact location of the grave.  Both should be signed and one returned to Mary in the provided SAE.

    • A location map of the grave.  Information on how to locate the grave can be found here.

  • Mary will post you a feedback form with an SAE from the Association of Natural Burials which should be returned to them directly.  However, should you have any concerns at all we would ask you to please let Mary know as quickly as possible so any issues can be resolved.​

  • Memorials - in order to maintain the natural state of the burial meadow, graves are not marked.  A slate plaque bearing the name of the deceased, date of birth and date of death can be purchased and displayed in our Memorial Board situated in the gathering area.  More information and prices

  • There is year round access to the burial meadow and the memorial board in the gathering area within the opening times of Thoulstone Park. There is a permissive public footbath providing access to the burial meadow and the gathering area.​​

After the event

*Definition of interment; Interment is the formal act or ceremony of burying a dead person or their cremated ashes in a permanent resting place.

Interment definition
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