Grave times as resting places get congested

In these more populous times, however, churchyards and public cemeteries are beginning to fill up, prompting many people to try alternative methods of burial.

SNJ reporter Will Saunders discovered why even the dead can't find a place to park in Stroud...

The funeral director

JAMES Baker is company director of Fred Stevens Funeral Directors, Nailsworth, a firm which has been arranging funerals in and around Nailsworth for more than 70 years. At present the family-run company handles almost a third of all the funeral proceedings in the Stroud area.

"Burial space is definitely an issue but not yet a problem," he said. "Certainly burial space in this area is limited but I think when people come to us there is already an awareness that the vast majority of churchyards in the area are either closed or very full."

Such a chronic shortage of space has led more and more people to request cremation rather than burial. In recent years, demand for the traditional burial has fallen steadily. "Folk are very modern in Stroud, despite the fact that this is a rural area," Mr Baker said. "It certainly reflects the current national average, where cremations account for around 70-80 per cent."

So, as the vast majority of people are now cremated rather than buried, does this mean that the churchyard burial is a thing of the past?

"There is just no demand for full burials these days, said Mr Baker. "Churchyards tend to be the ones that are suffering the most. It's a slightly different situation with the public cemeteries because they tend to be much larger."

Public cemeteries like the one in Brimscombe are managed by Stroud District Council and are often larger and newer than church graveyards. This means they have much more space available for new burials and are able to try new methods of burying the dead.

In recent years there has been an increasing demand for alternative, or 'green' burials at Brimscombe but Mr Baker remains unconvinced by the new trend of planting trees instead of headstones.

"It takes up a lot more space than traditional burials," he said. "I wouldn't have thought it would be too sustainable. I would be very interested to see what happens in ten years time."

Traditional burial

CANON Barry Coker is responsible for Anglican churches in the Stroud area. Only one of his churches, in Slad, still has plots available for full burials. The other two churches, at All Saints in Uplands and St Laurence's in Stroud, only have the space to bury ashes. So does this mean that families who want a loved one buried in Stroud are going to be disappointed?

"I think people in Stroud know there are no full burials in St Laurence's or in most other Stroud churches," he said, "but people do have the legal right to be buried in the parish they died in. This goes back to times past when somebody who died had to be buried very quickly."

This means that Father Coker still buries two or three bodies a year in Slad churchyard, despite the fact that most people favour cremations.

"I would be sad if people no longer had the right to choose between burial and cremation," he said.

But as the church land gets closer to being used up completely, Father Coker believes we should try a more radical solution.

"Historically, the land was used over and over again and the majority of people had no memorial or tombstone because they couldn't afford it," he said.

"These days people wouldn't be happy using the ground like this but perhaps in these days of recycling we should think about doing it again."

However, it may be more eco-friendly to leave the graveyards exactly as they are. Father Coker pointed out that despite the association with death, churchyards can provide the perfect place for endangered species to thrive.

"Often the churchyards can be very important environmental centres," he said. "Because they are a fairly undisturbed habitat you often find quite rare plants and wild flowers growing in them. For this reason we have to tend the areas around the graves very carefully."

Alternative burials

THE Public cemetery in Brimscombe was opened in 1931 and is maintained by Stroud District Council. It has much more land available than the older, smaller churchyards, and allows all kinds of burials from ashes to alternative and green burials. A full burial in a public cemetery costs an average of £500.

Ian Soule is one of the council staff responsible for maintaining the site and making sure there is enough space for future burials. He insists that, unlike the churchyards, public cemeteries have plenty of room to spare.

"There is still quite a bit of land left in Brimscombe cemetery," he said, "at least 10 to 15 years at the current rate. "We only get eight, nine, possibly ten burials a year in Brimscombe. The number has been going down quite repeatedly in the last six or seven years, probably because more people have gone for cremation."

As well as burying ashes, Brimscombe cemetery was also one of the first in the area to offer 'green' burials. This is a relatively new type of burial, designed to be kinder on the environment.

The coffin is made of an easily biodegradeable material like woven wicker or cardboard - sometimes the body is simply wrapped in a shroud. In place of a headstone, a small tree is planted on the grave.

This may sound pleasant, but the grave plot itself has to be far larger to accommodate the growth of the tree. Ecologically sound it may be, but the fact is that a green burial takes up much more space than a conventional one.

"We still get quite a few requests for green burials, and Brimscombe is the nearest place to Stroud where you can have them." said Mr Soule "But the demand for these has begun to tail off compared to what it was.

"They take up a lot more room - we have to put four metres between each plot to allow for the future growth of the trees."

But he doesn't believe the council will start to say no to green burials in the future just yet. "At the moment we are just monitoring the situation. It is not a decision we will have to make in the near future."