At Sussex Funeral Services, an independent brighton funeral directors, we feel that funerals should be an experience completely unique and tailored to the individuals needs.
As time moves on we understand that traditional burials might not fit with modern day lifestyles and so in this blog we want to highlight an alternative funeral choice – the natural woodland burial – Greener Funerals in Sussex.
Our recommendation for woodland burials is our own local natural burial ground, located at Clayton Wood, within the South Downs National Park, near Brighton.
Clayton Wood promotes woodland conservation and all things environmentally friendly and carbon neutrality, as well as serving as a beautiful final resting place, being overlooked by the well known, Jack and Jill windmills.
Plot locations within the burial ground, vary in price, depending on your budget and which stunning setting takes your fancy including:
● Poppy Meadow
● Buttercup meadow
● Oak lea
● The Avenue
● Pond View
● The Glades
Clayton Wood has facilities that match any traditional crematorium or chapel and is perfect for any religious or non religious services. What’s more, there are no additional costs imposed for anyone that lived outside of the area, as there are with local authority cemeteries.
Clayton Wood also complies with the code of conduct set out by the Association of Natural Burial Grounds, ensuring that Clayton Wood is regulated to an exceptional standard. Appointments are available to view the grounds.
Greener Funerals Coffins & Urns
Natural burials goes hand in hand with today’s readily available, ‘greener’ alternative to the standard casket or urn.
We use companies such as Earth to Heaven, Ecoffins and Greenfield creations, suppliers of coffins and urns that offer a fantastic range of attractive designs whilst still maintaining an eco friendly approach to coffins.
The greener coffins and urns are biodegradable and are therefore suitable for burials or cremations, fitting with low emissions standards. Our stocked eco friendly coffins are generally the ones made from cardboard or the wicker coffin made from willow and sweet corn weave.
The cardboard Coffins – which are also furnished with a biodegradable lining, are available in plain varied colours, or quirky picture coffins. There are standard designs for the picture coffins that can be found on our Pinterest Coffin Board, ranging from flowers to dreamy seaside sunsets, or if you have something more specific in mind the specialist design team can work off materials, pictures and any ideas that you have, offering a more personal touch and an opportunity to be as creative as you dare.
Our favourite featured design on their website is the decoupage coffins that they now offer. Decoupage is the art of gluing layers of coloured paper to an object, to give the image more depth, they have mainly been using this stylish effect for floral designs, but decoupage can be done with any image.
Coffins are also now available with canvas exteriors, with the option of using Greenfields Creations associated artist Roy Barrett. Though specialising in motorcycle art, Roy Barrett’s unique talent can be applied to most themes.
Ultimately for a real personal touch, you could actually paint your own design onto the coffin, with the type of material being extremely receptive to watercolours, and this could be a lovely way to pay a final tribute to your loved one. Maybe get the grandchildren to paint grandma or grandpa’s coffin!
It is all possible with Sussex Funeral Services where we stand for “caring, compassion and choice”.
