Funeral Guide 2020

Sheepdrove Burial Wood A Place of Shelter, Peace and Tranquillity

S heepdrove Burial Wood sits high on the windswept chalk downland at the cross roads of four drovers’ ridgeways. This ancient and hallowed landscape is part of the North Wessex Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The paths through the woodland are perfect for a peaceful stroll, while the network of ridgeways that converges at the gate to the burial wood affords a more bracing ramble indeed. The Ridgeway itself, Britain’s oldest road, an ancient track, which extends from Wiltshire along the ridge of the Berkshire Downs to the River Thames at Goring Gap, is within walkable distance along one of these drover’s waysides. The burial ground itself is a broad leaf deciduous woodland sheltered by mature hedgerows of hawthorn, blackthorn and briar rose. A tapestry of native wildflowers – cowslips, wild orchids, oxeye daisies, red campion, lady’s bedstraw and devil’s bit scabious – flourish under the trees, providing sustenance and shelter for bees and other pollinators throughout spring and summer.

It is a beautiful place to spend eternity. The wood is surrounded by the two thousand acres of green pastures, wildflower meadows, ancient woodland and fields of heritage grains that make up Sheepdrove Organic Farm. Visitors to the burial ground are welcome to come and go as they please all year round – there are no restrictions. A natural burial embraces all faiths, or no faith at all, allowing mourners perfect freedom to acknowledge and celebrate loved ones exactly as they wish. Bodies are committed to the land with minimal disturbance to the natural environment and with no lasting impact. Sheepdrove welcomes everybody; we embrace all faiths and no faith, any type of ceremony or no ceremony – the choice is yours. Sheepdrove’s Natural Burial Wood allows both full burial and ashes interment in an undisturbed final resting place. Family and friends are very welcome to gather both before or after the burial at Sheepdrove’s sustainable green events venue on the farm where both intimate or larger celebrations of life and wakes can be accommodated.

SHEEPDROVE ORGANIC FARM LAMBOURN, BERKSHIRE, RG17 7UU 01488 674747 info@sheepdrove.com

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