'It was the nicest, most natural funeral': The people who bury their parents in the back garden

Interest in home burials in on the rise, according to a funeral director

The cost of dying just soared (Getty)

While to some it may sound sinister – burying a body in your garden is totally legal and more and more people are considering it.

In the UK, burying a relative on land you own is permitted after the death has been registered in the official way which has to be done once a medical professional signs off on a cause of death.

Dave, whose 85-year-old father recently passed away, buried his father in their garden at his elderly mother’s wishes.

“We chose a home burial as my mother couldn’t bear the thought of spending the rest of her life without him being close to her,” he told The Independent explaining that his parents were together for 64 years and “totally devoted to each other”.

He says the process was a lot less problematic than he had assumed in terms of administration, with the biggest problem coming down to digging the grave.

While there may be some advisory measures such as contacting the environment agency to ensure the body will not be buried near certain types of water and completing a slip from the certificate for burial or cremation, the process is usually quite straightforward. The only issue which might come about is if somebody wants to bury more than two relatives, in which case they would need to apply for planning permission as it could be construed as a cemetry.

Dave says the funeral was “sad but not depressing” and being as though the family are not particularly religious “was the nicest, most natural funeral that I have experienced”. Their father was a buried in a willow coffin and lowered into the ground after Dave’s brother said some words and his mother rested a single red rose on top.

Funeral director and president of the National Association for Funeral Directors Jeremy Field says home burials are probably “more commonplace than people realise” and explains that there are a number of reasons why people may opt for one instead of a more traditional service and burial.

“I think it’s about proximity, loss , mourning, and wanting people nearby at a place that is meaningful and relevant,” he told The Independent. “Increasingly, that is the case with funerals as we come into a new generation where perhaps we are slightly more emotional about death and dying… now life expectancy is longer and it comes as much more of a shock and is important for people to stay in communities.”

Mr Field says that cost is another factor which must not be ignored, although doubts this is the “primary driver” of why people chose home burials.

For Dave, the totally cost of the entire funeral including the coffin and materials was £630.

“Although the financial cost was certainly not the driving force behind this, it really makes you wonder why this is not a more common way to say goodbye to loved ones,” he says.

Mr Field says that while the costs for a home burial may be cheaper, it can end up counterproductive if the body then has to be exhumed if the house would be sold.

During his time he once had to help a client exhume the body when the relatives of the deceased decided they wanted to move and found frequently going back to their former property to visit the grave was becoming impractical. They eventually applied for an exhumation license and moved the body to a local cemetery.

Dave is fully aware that his father’s body will have to be exhumed, which is what his mother wants as she then wants to be buried alongside her husband.

“When my mother dies we will exhume my father and bury them together in a natural burial site. This is my mothers wishes. This then get rid of the problems when selling the property,” he explained.

Rosie Inman Cook, the manager of the Natural Death Centre Charity, says she receives about 200 enquiries per year regarding home burials and Mr Field says interest in the practice is definitely increasing.

“People are looking to do more meaningful services to them… home burial is an extension of a more personal approach. Once you have the conversation [with interested families] they find there is not a great deal of restriction and get more interested.”

He has not noticed a pattern in the clientele most interested in home burials saying it is a complete mixture of people. The only common characteristic they tend to have is that the land on which they are burying the loved one is part of a multi-generational home and is therefore less likely to be sold. Ms Inman Cook says many of the enquiries she receives are from farmers again owning land which has been passed down with each generation.

While the endeavour may be unorthodox, Dave believes his family made the right decision for them.

“I think my father would have been proud,” he said.