Natural Burial Ground Management

Let us take care of things for you – here’s how…

We work with landowners to set up and manage natural burial grounds across the UK.
From our Monmouth office we manage eight natural burial grounds, located from the North of Scotland to the western side of Cardiff, across to the Thames Valley. We would be pleased to discuss with you the option of managing your burial ground in the same way.

The way we could organise this for you is as follows: -

• If burials have already taken place, you would send us a copy of the up to date burial register and register plan.
• We will prepare a digital plan of the burial ground and use GPS surveying equipment to survey and digitise the plan.
• We would install survey points and record any existing survey points and markers that have been used.
• The burial register details would be uploaded into our standard database format.
• We would then make sure that the burials recorded in the register correspond with the register plan.
• If grave diggers are not contracted, we can arrange for a new gravedigger to be appointed and trained.
• We can arrange for someone local to become the custodian, to meet families interested in purchasing plots and to attend funerals, if you’d prefer not to do this yourself.

When up-and-running, the service we would provide would be as follows: -

• Answer telephone, email and postal enquiries during office hours Monday to Friday 9am -5pm
• Issue application forms and deal with sales requests
• Keep a jointly accessible online diary of events for the burial ground 
• Liaise with families, funeral directors, the custodian and gravedigger
• Receive and check paperwork and payments
• Instruct the grave digger and local representative
• Obtain feedback immediately after each burial/funeral
• Record details in the statutory register and register plan
• Return forms to the Registrar or Coroner
• Produce burial certificates and plot individual grave location plans
• Send families formal burial documents with a feedback form

 Working together - what does it cost?
The basic funeral administration and record-keeping service can be set up without reducing the income to the landowner, simply by introducing a burial administration fee payable at the time of each funeral. If landowners would prefer to absorb the cost themselves, particularly for reservations already made, this can be done instead. 
Setting up charges will vary depending on the size of the site, the complexity of the layout and the number of burials to be re-recorded.

Higher levels of service
We can also offer higher levels of service to cover all aspects of burial ground management so that the landowner can step back completely, whilst retaining ownership and income from the project. We also work with landowners to develop new natural burial grounds.

We work this way with landowners across the UK and can provide good references testifying to the good working relationships we have.

Sharing information transparency 
We operate in a transparent and open manner, providing you with full access to all data and register files relating to the burial ground.

By working with Leedam Natural Heritage, you can be sure that we have the experience, assets and expertise that is needed to take over the task.

If this service is of interest please contact us on 01600 716438  or email:  info@leedam.com

The Monmouth office

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Digital burial ground plan

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Handheld GPS recording