A simpler, greener farewell

Everything you might want to understand about how natural burial works, and how it differs from a conventional funeral.

Natural burial returns a person to the earth as simply and naturally as possible — and lets a living landscape, rather than stone, become their memorial.

The principles

How it works

There is no embalming, so nothing is introduced that the ground cannot absorb. The coffin or shroud is fully biodegradable — woven willow, cardboard, untreated wood or natural wool.

Plots are dug to a depth that supports the natural breakdown of the soil's living layer, and the ground above is allowed to return to meadow rather than being kept as bare or mown grave.

In place of a headstone

A living memorial

Rather than granite, each plot is marked by something that grows — a native tree, a patch of wildflowers, or a small, simple marker laid flat among the grass.

Over the years the individual plots soften into the meadow as a whole. Families tell us this is the part they come to value most.

Compared with conventional burial

The difference, in short

A comparison of natural burial and conventional burial
Aspect	Natural burial	Conventional
Embalming	None	Common
Coffin	Biodegradable only	Often varnished or lined
Memorial	Wildflowers	Headstone
The ground	Wildflower meadow, kept wild	Mown lawn cemetery
Care	Managed as habitat in perpetuity	Maintained as grave plots

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