Funeral Experts

Burial or Cremation?

Content Statement

This article covers the topic of your loved ones’ final resting place – the “final bit” of a funeral. We’ll discuss – with sensitivity, of course – some of the practical elements of laying the deceased to rest. We aim to be as factual as possible, but you may find some of the terms used somewhat upsetting. 

 

The 'Last Bit' of a Funeral

“Laying the body to rest”

“Disposal of the remains”

“Committing the body to the ground”

“The final disposition” 

 

There are all sorts of ways of describing the element of the funeral service that manages the body of the person who has died. In the UK, there are currently two main modes: the person’s body can be buried, or it can be cremated. Even if you choose other methods of in the interim – such as donating your body to medical science, or cryomation (if that’s your bag) – eventually, all that remains will be either buried or cremated.

Although those are the two modes, the methods of delivery, and the reasoning behind them, like most things Funeral-related, are many and varied…

About Burials

Burying the dead was the done-thing in the UK for centuries. 

 

Burials can be quite costly. Not least because when you plan to bury someone. With burials, rather than buying a plot of land indefinitely, you are buying an “Exclusive Right to Burial”, which is on lease for a number of years at a time. Depending on the Burial Authority, this could last for as long as 100 years, or as few as 25. After that time, you’ll have the option to renew your lease, or else the grave is repurposed for another burial.

In addition to buying the Exclusive Right of Burial – which you can purchase at any time, even before you need to use the grave – you will also pay an “Interment Fee”. Essentially, this is the fee to use the grave; it’s the cost of digging the grave and readying the ground for burial. 

 

Sometimes, the first interment is included in the cost of purchasing the new grave. However, more often than not, it is a separate charge.

 

Burial Fees

Burial fees also vary depending on whether or not the deceased was a tax-paying resident of the area the cemetery is in. Local authorities will offer discounted rates on new grave purchases and interment fees to residents who have lived in their area for five years or more, often at rates of up to 50%. The argument is that in so doing, the person will have contributed towards the running costs of maintaining the sites through their council tax payments, in that non-residents will not. Burial authorities will sometimes ask for proof of residency, so it’s a good idea to have this on hand when you go to your Funeral Director to make arrangements (they’ll take a copy for you and submit it to the cemetery with the rest of your statutory paperwork).

 

The cost of buying and using a grave varies greatly up and down the country. In London, for example, graves on cost around 40% more than the national average. Because of the dense population in London and the reduced availability of new graves, there’s a huge premium on the cost of burial land. 

Of course, there are alternatives to the traditional cemeteries…

 

Churchyards

For avid church-goers, the churchyard of their favourite place of worship is an ideal resting place. There are a couple of ways in which burial in a churchyard differs from burial in a municipal cemetery; firstly, the grave and all burial rights will continue to be owned by the church. Churchyards tend to have stricter rules on what sort of memorials can be placed at the head of the grave, often only allowing plain headstones with minimal personalisation. Churchyards are also usually reserved for members of the parish.

Natural Burial Grounds

Natural Burial Grounds are becoming more and more popular. For those who loved long walks in the woods in life, where better to rest in death than in a forest?

 

These specialist areas of land have been curated within ancient woodland, often with several different areas of meadowland, bluebell lawns and tree-lined avenues. They’re protected from development by trusts, often with longer grave-ownership leases than some of their municipal counterparts. 

 

Like with Churchyards, there are more restrictions; most burial grounds will specify that coffins only made of natural materials can be used, they may not allow the burial of people who have been embalmed, and indeed will only allow wooden memorials/grave markers. Where in other burial grounds, members of the same family may be buried 2 – 3 deep in one grave, this may not be possible in natural burial grounds; graves aren’t always able to be dug as deep to take into account the growth of tree roots. You may also be restricted from placing personal items on the grave – like teddy bears, or balloons – as they may interfere with the natural landscape. 

 

They’re a wonderful choice for the environmentally conscious.

What about the back garden?

You can bury someone in private land. You’ll need to have permission from the landowner, and it’s also helpful to have a survey carried out by the Environment Agency to ensure the burial is safe and legal. There are restrictions about how close you can bury someone to bodies of running water, plumbing lines and so on. You’ll also need to be mindful of the fact that your loved one will in all likelihood need to stay there if/when you move home, or who will inherit your home when you yourself pass on. Alternatively, you may wish to exhume your loved one – but this comes with considerable time and deliberation.

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About Cremation

Since being approved by the Catholic church in 1964 as a method of ‘disposal’ (and, providing that the cremation is being carried out not in spite of the belief in resurrection), cremation has seen a surge in popularity and now accounts for 74% of all committals in the UK.

Cremation Costs - What's Included, What's Not Included

Cremation offers significant advantages to burial in a number of ways. Firstly, cost. The cremation fee is a single payment and often accounts for:

  • Hire of the crematorium ‘chapel’/service hall for the funeral 
  • Running the cremator
  • Music and (some) media services 
  • Processing the cremated remains
  • Limited-time storage of the cremated remains
  • (Optional) scattering/interment of the cremated remains

 

Crematoria will often offer reduced fees for:

  • Unattended cremation services
    There is no need to include the hire of their crematorium chapel, nor to run the media services. The service itself needs to be tended to by fewer staff.

 

  • Shorter services that take place early in the day (usually before 10am).
    There is better availability during these times.

Cremation Myth - Busted!

How often have you heard the myth that coffins get reused once they’re at the crematorium? This is completely false: individuals are cremated alone, and in the coffin or shroud they are brought to the crematorium in.

 

Your funeral director will be able to help you select a coffin that is best-suited to cremation, and offer alternatives based on your needs. They will also advise you what can and cannot be placed in a coffin with the person who has died, with the cremation in mind (you’ll find this advice will include that you mustn’t place anything with a battery in with the deceased or alcohol/deodorants – these items can cause explosions that damage the crematory!). 

What Do I Do With the Ashes?

At the point of arrangement, you’ll work with your funeral director to complete Cremation Form 1. This is a legal form that authorises the cremation to take place (if you’re the one signing the form, you’re making a statement that you would like the cremation to happen, that no one else has any rights over instructing a cremation to take place and, if they do, that no one disagrees with the cremation taking place), and also confirms your instructions for the remains from the cremation process. These remains are known as “ashes”. 

 

You’ll be given three options. 

 

 

Three Options...

The first, is for the crematorium to scatter or inter the ashes on your behalf. This will usually be in the crematorium grounds. You can choose to be present for this, or you can allow the crematorium to take care of this for you. They will record where the ashes are scattered for your information.

 

 

The second option, is for you or your appointed representative to collect the ashes from the crematorium on your behalf. This could be a named relative, or your funeral director. 

 

 

The third option is for the crematorium simply to hold onto the ashes for you, until you make a decision about what you’d like to happen next. They will usually contact you after a period of time offering further options, or they will contact you after a number of months to start charging a fee for storing your loved ones’ ashes longer-term. 

 

 

Oftentimes, you’ll be encouraged to let the Funeral Director collect the ashes on your behalf. While some may charge a fee for this, others will not and will hold the ashes indefinitely for you. It’s best to have an idea about what you would like to do with them at this early stage of making funeral arrangements, just so you’ve an idea about what the next steps will look like. 

 

Food For Thought - How Much Will I Get and What Should I Do With Them?

For an adult cremation, there will often be up to 3 litres of cremated remains. While some people may want to keep all of the ashes together, others may like the idea of them being separated out so that a little bit if their person goes to all the people/places they possibly can. The fact that ashes are portable is a huge benefit to cremation.

 

  1. Keep the ashes in a container – a special wooden box or decorative ornament – in the home
    “I found it so lonely being at home without the old git in his chair, watching telly. When I got his ashes back, I popped them on his little coffee table and put the remote next to him. I feel so much better having him there next to me – I’ve told the kids to mix us both up when I go!”

  2. Inter (bury) the ashes – at the crematorium, or another special place
    Some people like to have a gathering place, away from home, where they can go to spend protected time with their loved one. Having a little distance can create space and a sense of ritual of spending time with someone, rather than having them as a constant presence in the home. You’ve got the opportunity to add a memorial, that you can personalise and decorate according to the rules, but also to the season and special occasions. It can be an important meeting place for friends and relatives on birthdays and anniversaries, or midday on a rainy Tuesday. For some, it brings comfort to know there’s a special place all of their own to share with their much-loved person.
     
  3. Scatter the ashes at the seaside, in the woods, on holiday, out the window of the Orient Express…
    By scattering the ashes in special places, there’s a sense of letting your person go in a place that they loved. It can be comforting to think of them enjoying themselves there, and to create a parallel to draw you back to happier times.

  4. Memorial Jewellery, Tattoos, Vinyl Records, Shot into Space…
    There are all sorts of things you can do with ashes – traditional, modern, classic and innovative. You’ll see a whole article on What To Do With Ashes very soon… 

Whichever your decision, you’ll do what’s right for you, your family and your loved one. Your decision will be the right one, for you, with the information you’ve got to hand.

We wish you our very best for the next stage of your funeral arrangement journey.

About FuneralExperts.com

FuneralExperts.com helps you to compare funeral directors based on:

  • Their location
  • Their standardised fees 

We do not endorse or make recommendations about individual funeral directors, but we do offer you the tools to make those decisions yourself. 

We’ll guide you through the very first steps of any funeral arrangement, outlining the decisions you’ll have and the different options for each. We’ll help by:

  • By collecting yours and your loved ones’ details
  • Laying out the pros and cons between a burial or cremation
  • Offering the decisions you’ll make to help choose where you’d like the burial or cremation to happen
  • Working out what your preferred date and time for the funeral will be
  • Sharing the assessment tools you might use to choose which Funeral Director to entrust your funeral to

Our aim is to pair as many families as possible to the best funeral director for their individual needs. 

As much as we’re a funeral price comparison service, we also aim to educate the public on the funeral industry as a whole. When the time inevitably comes that the funeral industry is needed, our clients are well-equipped with the language and understanding they need to give their loved one the best funeral possible. 

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