Friday 5 March 2010

Mortality - Natural burial site, Staunton, Gloucestershire

I've been working with the Natural Death Centre in Tywford and they have set me on the trail of natural burial sites. This was the most peaceful place i have ever been, despite the odd car. It is not an obvious place, i parked up on the side of the road where the satnav told me to but took me a good 10 minutes to notice the trees planted over the graves. There are no conventional grave stones to be seen and most are just marked my a little stone plaque with their name's and date of death and on some a small message. In some cases there was just some old flowers and the unearthed dirt to give away a grave.
Despite the care that doesn't seem to go into maintaining the sites you never get the impression of neglect. I felt pretty comfortable there if I'm honest. There was only one thing that i found strange and that was the holes themselves where not big enough to fit a body in that i could see. I hope to meet the people who run the site to get a better look at the goings on.

1 comment:

  1. Do come and have a look at our natural burial ground at Usk - we're not far from Glos. and it's definitely worth a visit. Please feel free to go alone or call me to arrange a tour. regards James Leedam, Native Woodland Ltd 01600 716438

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