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the Eternal Forest Trust ltd
Charity No. 1110801
Connecting the Cycles of Life
Woodland Services
Woodland for All.
Woodland Burial, Pre-booked glades,
Dedicated Areas and Trees in Memoriam and Celebration,
Family and Gift Trees, dedicated nest boxes.
The Eternal Forest Trust’s woodland is maintained for the benefit of all life-forms: humans, animals and plants. We want everyone to feel free to enjoy the wood and to experience the healing effects of being in natural woodland, without causing harm to themselves or the environment.
Boduan Sanctuary wood is open to pedestrians, wheelchair users, and people pushing buggies. Our aim is to make it accessible to everyone. Click on the link to Walk in the Woods to see how beautiful it looks – and then consider how much more delightful it would be to walk through the woods yourself, with input from all your senses: not only seeing the wood, but smelling the vegetation, hearing the birdsong and the chuckle of the stream, feeling the path under your feet and the gentle breeze on your skin.
Whether you choose to dedicate woodland, book a burial site or place ashes in the wood, we reserve areas of woodland in blocks of 2.5 x 2.5 m (6.25m2); these are the units with which we work. Once one of these squares of ground has been dedicated, we mark it on our Master Map and linked database, and it ceases to be available for use by anyone else. So if you decided, for example, to pre-book a Family Glade large enough for four burials, we would mark eight adjacent squares on the map (a total of 50m2) which would be reserved for your family in perpetuity. We would then make a Location Map for you which would show precisely where your glade is in the wood so that you can visit it at any time. You could put a wooden seat there, if you wish!
Woodland Burials
One of the most important functions of the Eternal Forest Trust is the provision of woodland burials. We provide facilities for bereaved families and friends to lay their loved ones to rest in beautiful surroundings, in an entirely natural way.
A woodland burial can be a wonderful experience: sad, inevitably, as mourners remember the person they loved and lost; but not necessarily solemn. Our experience is of a very special afternoon, following green-lit paths fringed with regal foxgloves, perfumed with pine and garlands of honeysuckle, listening to birdsong and recalling how much the person we were burying loved these things.
Click to see photographs of the
first
burial in Boduan Sanctuary.
We knew he would be happy to be there,
and that knowledge comforted us.
It is our intention to make visiting a grave a positive experience, whatever the season of the year. Nature can always lift the heart and enhance memories. Boduan Sanctuary Wood is a very special natural woodland garden.
As time passes, the burial ground will become a more diverse nature reserve, where the bereaved experience the peace of the trees as they remember those they have lost. The unobtrusive graves, marked by natural stone, wooden memorials and specifically planted trees, will, over decades, fade into the forest background without becoming lost.
By being buried in this way, we can continue even after death to help preserve the wonder of life in all its diversity.
It is never too late to contribute to the environment!
Some particular advantages of woodland burials may not immediately spring to mind. We feel they are important and would like to share them with you. We make it as certain as we possibly can that your loved one will truly rest in peace and never be disturbed by anyone wishing to re-use the ground or pack yet more bodies into an overcrowded cemetery. The Eternal Forest is there in perpetuity: No wood owned by the Eternal Forest Trust will be sold, and nobody will clear-fell it or use it for profit; so it will remain beautiful and peaceful for as long as trees continue to grow. And bodies, once buried, will remain undisturbed, slowly merging with their surroundings. So the dead become completely integrated into the vibrant life of the wood.
Life continues: it merely changes its form.
Arranging a burial
We offer the following for those who wish to arrange a woodland burial:
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Preparation of the grave at an agreed site in the wood, for an agreed date.
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Off-road parking for at least fifteen cars.
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Assistance with the burial if required.
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Sourcing and placing a suitable natural stone to mark the grave.
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Providing and planting a native tree of your choice.
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Advice on other aspects of the funeral arrangements, such as getting a biodegradable coffin (cardboard, wicker, and unlined preservative-free wood are acceptable) or woollen shroud.
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A Memorial Certificate that specifies the precise location of the grave, the name of the deceased, and the date of the burial. We also provide a precise Location Map of the grave for your reference.
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A Contract explaining our long-term commitment to the burial site.
The rest – music, a service or alternative ceremony, and the social gathering – is up to you; but we will be happy to offer advice.
Religious burials can be arranged if required, and individual grave sites consecrated; just speak to your local minister. If you would prefer a non-religious celebration, we can put you in touch with a humanist officiant who will lead the proceedings and remember the life of the person you have lost.
Or you can organise your own alternative funeral ceremony at the graveside or elsewhere in the wood.
We will do what we can to help you to create a very special occasion, one that is appropriate for the person who has died.
Burial Tariff
Our burial tariff has two aspects: A service charge of £300 (which includes opening and closing the grave, a tree and wild flowers on the site, a Memorial Certificate and a Location Map, plus all the associated bureaucracy), plus a donation to support the work of the Charity. The donation can be as large as you like or as little as £400; and if you can’t afford even this much, ring us to discuss an individual arrangement.
Click to access our burial tariff.
If you are arranging a burial for a friend or relative, please contact us as promptly as possible by ringing 01758 612006. There is usually someone who can answer the telephone between 9am and 9pm; if there’s no answer, leave a message giving your number (speak slowly and clearly!) and we will call you back. If by any chance we haven’t rung back within 24 hours, it’s most likely we couldn’t hear the number clearly. Ring again, and try our mobile on 07968 167204.
We will discuss your needs and if you don’t have a plot in a pre-booked glade, we will offer you a guided walk around the wood to pick your preferred location. We need a minimum of three days’ notice for a burial.
Pre-payment
If you or those dear to you would like to be buried in Boduan Sanctuary some time in the future – hopefully many years hence – you can book your place now. You can either pay the total cost in advance, or put down a deposit (minimum £400), or join our "pay now, die later" scheme and set up a Standing Order to make regular donations to the Eternal Forest Trust. Whichever option you choose, we will reserve a space in the wood for you from the time of your first payment. For a double plot (25m2), we would normally expect you to commit to paying £20 per month for five years. And if you should be so unfortunate as to need our services before the five years is up, your place will be available. Our commitment to you begins as soon as you make a commitment to us.
Clearing spruces to create Barbara's (pre-paid) Glade
Click for a Standing Order form to set up:
Pay Now, Die Later; Single
Pay Now, Die Later; Double
Click for more details about Pre-paid Burial
Or contact us for further details
Burial or Scattering of Ashes
As a general principle, we believe that burial is the most ecologically friendly way of dealing with our dead bodies. However, we understand that some people would rather be cremated. The Eternal Forest Trust offers the opportunity to bury or scatter ashes in woodland. If you want to leave your loved one’s ashes in a particular spot in the wood – perhaps by a particularly lovely tree – you can dedicate that piece of ground to the memory of that person. Alternatively, you can choose a place to plant a young tree and bury the ashes under its roots.
A minimum area of 2.5 x 2.5 metres will be allocated for each person whose cremated remains are placed in the wood. We would prepare a Certificate of Dedication, Location Map and Contract as described above.
Click to access our Tariff for placing of ashes.
Dedications
You can celebrate any significant occasion
in life by dedicating a plot of land to be Eternal Forest. We can provide
a Certificate of Dedication for a special event like a birth, marriage,
anniversary or exam success. The Certificate will give the name of the
person, the date and occasion being commemorated, and the precise location
of the land dedicated. But be warned: specific plots in a living forest
may be very overgrown, and whilst the position of every plot will be
known, it may not always be easily accessible.
You could use a Certificate of Dedication as a special gift, a memento to keep, or as a talking point showing that you are helping to preserve our natural woodland and thus looking after the future of the planet.
You may wish to dedicate a piece of Eternal Forest in Memoriam for a loved one, a friend, or a colleague you have admired. In such cases, documentation similar to that described above will be provided.
We also offer items placed in the wood for dedication. For example, you might wish to dedicate a gate or a bird or bat box to commemorate a special occasion. We would create a Certificate of Dedication which specifies the item which your contribution allowed the Eternal Forest Trust to put in place.
Hand-made wooden plaques are available to hang in dedicated trees or to attach to dedicated nest boxes. The price will vary depending on the size of the plaque and the words or motif you want engraved on it, but normally range between £25 and £40.
Click to see our Dedications Tariff.
You can help the Eternal Forest Trust in its work by adopting a Family Tree, or by giving a dedication of a tree to a friend. You may pick your tree or we could choose one for you and supply a photograph suitable for framing. You could decorate your tree with wooden plaques, naming particular boughs after members of your family, or arrange for dedicated bird nesting boxes to be fixed to your tree. You can select a Gift Tree for a friend or let us choose one for you. You would receive location documents and a photograph for presentation.
The Wood Reverts to its Natural State
We will do our best to create and maintain access to all parts of Boduan Sanctuary Wood, but this may not always be possible in some areas. Nature can rapidly take advantage of open spaces, and they may be filled, either with fresh growth or fallen trees or branches. This is all part of the forest life to which you are contributing; it has to be accepted for what it is.
Please contact us if you are interested in any of the services described above.
