Thin places - Clandon Wood Natural Burial Reserve

Clandon Wood natural burial reserve is a thin place in the making. It nestles in the Surrey Hills just outside Guildford and covers two huge meadows with room, ultimately, for about 20,000 interments.

Its primary role is to provide families with a beautiful and natural place to celebrate the life of a loved one in a way that works completely with the grain of nature rather than against it. So, while there are some restrictions that don't apply in churchyards (for example, no brass handles on coffins, no varnished wood that might adulterate the natural ground water, no motor vehicles on site), there are also none of the other limitations that people increasingly find more difficult. You can, for example, have any kind of service at all (Christian, pagan, humanist, spiritualist, whatever) and use any kind of form that you care to. You could, if you wish, do the digging yourself, if that was authentic and meaningful for you, or you could spend the day there with a picnic.

Graves are marked only by simple clay tablets, and the intention is to manage the whole place as a permanent nature reserve in conjunction with local environmental trusts and charities in order to create a wildlife preserve. A large glass pavilion will hold services unless you prefer to be outside, and soon it will be possible to transmit services via the web so that people don't have to travel if they are too far away or are old and infirm.

Already the feel of a sacred space is starting to gather there. When you know that people are nearby under your feet, it has a marked effect. It's too soon for it to feel ancestral, but that will come.

The website is here.