Visiting Natural Burial Grounds 2015
I’ve visited two Green Burial sites now: Higher Ground Meadow, Dorset, http://www.highergroundmeadow.co.uk/ and Westmill Woodland Burial Ground http://www.woodlandburialwestmill.co.uk/
The first one, Higher Ground, I went to with Dayajoti. It was deep into Dorset, and as we arrived you couldn’t help but notice the lovely views out across the fields. It had a big wooden barn with lots of chairs and glass windows, and although the structure was quite simple it had been beautifully finished. It looked comfortable and I felt you would be really warm and cosy in there.
As Jo showed us around, we walked down winding paths; some of the hawthorn hedges had grown up and had become old and knarled which gave the land a great atmosphere. We walked past one grass meadow and Jo pointed out that people were buried in that field, the grass and the flowers had grown so that there were no signs of the graves as you walked past. We walked around another corner and Jo showed us the place for woodland burials which was going to have a tree per grave. There was another area where it was possible to have a view and a tree which, as Jo said, is what everyone wants but it’s actually quite hard to have a view once you start planting trees! She then told us a story about an aboriginal man buried there whose tradition is to be buried upright – so one of the graves is very narrow and deep.
I was interested to hear that the graves are fairly shallow, only 3 or 4 feet deep because once you go into the subsoil there are no microorganisms and no air, so for natural burial, you actually want the bodies nearer the surface where they’re broken down much quicker. It made me feel connected with the people buried here knowing they weren’t far away. I think what struck me here and also at Westmill was the thought that if I was to leave a loved one here I’d have a sense that they wouldn’t really be lonely. I thought I wouldn’t want to leave them in a conventional cemetery, I wouldn’t feel that they would feel at home there in that same way. I suppose I was just thinking about how I would feel if I was left there and I would think, ‘well, I could feel at home here…I’ve got lovely views, I’ve got a place with soul’ and I think that would give me great comfort!
The next place I visited with Annie was Westmill. The burial ground is part of a bigger project which includes an organic farm, and community-owned wind farm, solar park and horticultural therapy project. It wasn’t as large as Higher Ground and it didn’t have a sense of woodland yet as the trees are newly planted, but obviously that will come with time. It’s in such a lovely setting as in the distance you can see the White Horse of Uffington so it’s in quite a magical part of the country. The only building was a little roundhouse with an earth floor. It was a very pretty little structure, open and very simple and somewhere to hold a ceremony. There was a wonderful standing stone with some beautiful words carved on it which Liz from Westmill had written herself. A friend has put it to music.
Because the graves are unmarked, they’ve started a spiral of plaques coming out from the stone with people’s names on them and I imagine that as the spiral grows you would then be able to walk the path it made, giving a lovely sense of ritual.
Liz arrived with tea and coffee in a wicker basket and we sat in a willow arbour while Liz told us about her ideas and her other projects, including theatre work around death. You could tell that she really loved connecting with people, sometimes speaking with people who knew they were near the end of their life, and I got a real sense that she would be a great support.
After we’d been shown around Annie and I drove for about 10 minutes and sat and ate our picnic overlooking the White Horse. As we sat up there looking down the valley we saw wind turbines and knew we were looking down at Westmill as these turbines are another part of the wonderful project there.
Cath Dixon, November 2015