cemetary

[wooo12]

might be a daft question and duno if it fits in here but i'll give it a go.

what happens when a graveyard becomes 'full'? do they find another location to start burying people? If so will england, one day, become a big cemetary?

[gary baldy]

Cemeteries do become full. The pressure is on local authorities to find new land (v. expensive) especially in urban areas. This is going to be problem in the future 9if not now). You would be surprised how many old cemeteries are abandoned and eventually built on. Most cities will abandoned city centre cemeteries as the city grew - removed the headstones and grassed over the burial ground - or in some cases built on top. There is a five a side pitch above an abandoned cememtery near me.

[rampart]

I think I have heard that in some countries, because of crowding, cemetery space is limited, and so caskets might be stacked, some are buried on end, some are buried for a few years then dug up and the remains cremated. I tried to google this but had a tough time, and not enough time to answer any better.

[gary baldy]

In the 19th century in urban areas, especially during the cholera epidemics, the cemeteries couldnt cope so bodies were buried sometimes 6 deep.

[wooo12]

thank you both.

[Gandy]

If you presume that we need 0.4m3 of space to bury the average person it pails into insignificance against the amount of waste that we bury each year. The average person generates 1.02 tonnes per year. This is roughly equivalent to 12.2m3 when compacted

[wooo12]

Good point Gandy.

[Tim B]

It is becoming more of a problem. More and more cities' graveyards are becoming full. There is amove amongst local authorities trying to promote cremation. The trouble is that althought cemeteries are generally neglected those who do tend the graves don't want them disturbed, quite rightly too. But the vast majority of grave are unattended and forgotten. Families can and do reserve plots for family members and they are subsequently buried horizontally on top of each other.

Local authorities do (at the moment) have an obligation to bury on demand but as you (I think) are becoming aware, one day it will have to stop. My local authority is trying its hardest to promote cremation as a way out of overcrowding graveyards.

Have you watched "Poltergeist" recently?

[wooo12]

lol. it was a coincidence, i posted this in the afternoon and then poltergeist came on in the evening AND i just happened to turn it on where they are talking about the cemetary. weeeeird.

its because i pass a cemetary on the tube everyday. i started to think after seeing 100's and 100s of graves.

[bubblebubble]

I nearly bought a chapel a few years ago, there were a lot of old graves in the grounds which i thought may be a problem. apparently as the youngest was over 100 yrs old (grave,that is-not occupant!) I could do as i pleased with regard to the land. not sure a swimming pool would have been a good idea though :-)

[NiceCupOfTea]

I remember a programme I watched a while ago showed a part of an old church, like a crypt but it had a special name. When the graveyard was full, they would dig up old graves and put the remains into this crypt-thing. This meant that the bodies (or bones) were still on hallowed ground, but took up less space.

[twiglet4frog]

in australia i believe it was (but might be wrong and might be somewhere in europe) they are starting to bury coffins feet first and upright to take up a lot less space, and the materials used are more biodegradable to allow break downs quicker to allow the land to be reused for burial within a couple of hundred years once a few generations pass. The field when full with the graves be used as grazing land for cows and sheep to graze on until the length of time has passed to reuse it as a burial ground again for the next generation of burials. Rather than headstones for each grave a single memorial with the names of all those buried there and the birthdate and deathdate will be situated in a prominant position at the entrance to the field.

The idea is two fold, it provides the local authority the chance to bury more people within less space and recycle that space a century or two down the line, and it is also believed that the breaking down in the soil and feeding the cows is a form of returning your body to mother earth and allowing the cycle of life to carry on!

[Famous5]

I think there is a posibility to reuse graves after a certain length of time - my dusty memory says 70 years - when the existing coffins are exhumed and any remains put into a charnel house, a repository for bones.

It's how the gravediggers in Hamlet came to find Yorick's skull (but if the timescale above is right the H could't have known him, well or otherwise)

[WendyS]

This question set me thinking as to whether it's better to be buried or cremated. I'd more or less decided on cremation, but with more and more Green Belt areas being built on and covered with concrete, perhaps the only way we can ensure some green spaces remain sacrosanct for 50 years and subsequent generations is for all of us to opt for burial. At least it's greener in that we're not using electricity to have our remains cremated.

[gucciman]

i live in south birmingham near to brandwood end cemetry. that cemetry is now full so the council have bought some old farm land in kings norton and opened a new cemetry there.

my nan was buried in the old cemetry last week but only because the family had already bought a plot there, they reopened my grandads grave and buried nan with him, and apprently there is room for one more.