What you can do

The burial

You will need to organise care of the body before burial, the coffin, the service, and the music. We are happy to help and your funeral director (if you have one) will take care of as much of the organisation as you choose.

The body can arrive in any vehicle, it doesn’t need to be a hearse – we’ve had camper vans and even a sheep trailer!  We provide a wicker coffin cart to move the coffin through the wood.

You can have any sort of ceremony or none. We’ve had Christian (Catholic and Protestant), Bahai’i, Buddhist and Druid/Pagan, as well as non-religious (Humanist) celebrations. There are no time limits for services.

The experience is usually better when the funeral is led by a celebrant and we can help find the right person for you. See our Useful links page.

If you wish, we will do everything required for the burial from the time the body arrives at the wood. We will have the grave prepared and decorated, we supervise the burial, and we restore the plot afterwards.

Everything to be buried – including the coffin and the clothes worn by the deceased must be biodegradable. We’re happy with cardboard, wicker, seagrass or plain (unvarnished) wooden (not MDF!) caskets, or a shroud made of wool or other natural fibre.

Mourners who want to fill in the grave after the burial are welcome to do so.

We permit cut flowers and wreaths but ask that plastic wrappers are removed.

After the burial

We allow native wildflowers to be planted on the grave and we have a wildflower nursery from which you can choose: see our wildflower policy. We will remove plants that appear to have been bought from garden centres and shops. Bluebells can be sourced from within the wood, they must not be brought in.

Most people have memorials of engraved slate and you can buy suitable stones from us: gallery of memorials.

Memorials should not be of plastic or metal. We will remove anything we consider inappropriate.