School Visits

We had our first school visit at Chiltern last week - 29 ten and eleven year olds from a local school arrived with their wellies and packed lunches as part of our intitiative developed with the Child Bereavement Charity.
The two hour trip included some acting and music and talking about the circle of life and the feelings that we have when someone or something that we love dies, followed by a nature trail through the woodland and learning more about the work being carried out here. As a final activity the children walked the labyrinth.

Verdict on the visiting a woodland cemetery as part of a schoold day?.

Here are some of the children's thoughts:

Before the visit - "I felt sad because I thought it was going to be rubbish. I did not fancy going to a place where people get buried. I didn't think you could be buried in a wood."

After the visit -  "It was really cool during the day because they dealt with something adults don't like to talk about and I'd never been talked to about death before."

Before - " I felt really worried and slightly ill. But I still went".

After - "Now I feel glad that I went because it was a really good trip".

Before - "I thought it was going to be quite boring because it's about new life and where people are buried. I thought it was going to be quite a sad place".

After - "I really want to be buried there because it is nice to be by nature. I really enjoyed it because they were really fun activities".

Before - "I thought we were going to just walk around graves, but it was a thousand times better".

After - "Right now I want to go there again, and I think people in other schools will like it as well as Year 6".

Study Day

Epping Forest Burial Park once again supported Princess Alexandra Hospital in Harlow, holding their 4^th regular study day aimed at midwives and nurses from the hospital. 50 nurses attended the Death of a Baby Study Day at the Park.

Nurses attended a full day with a variety of activities and lectures, using both of our beautiful buildings as a free venue, with catering provided for lunch.

Members of our dedicated woodland team took groups of midwives on woodland tours paying particular interest to our Snowdrop Trees, special trees dedicated to babies and children.

Armistice Day

We held a small service of remembrance here at Chiltern Woodland Burial Park today, led by the wonderful John Kingsley-Smith who always creates a thoughtful and meaningful ceremony.

A Salvation Army silver band played a selection of music, and the two minutes silence was accompanied by the wind blowing the rain through the trees - an appropriately bleak late autumn vista through the panoramic glass windows as each person present took the time to give silent thanks and say individual prayers for those who have given their lives in conflict.

The service was completed with a prayer of dedication at memorial post placed under an ash tree close to our peace pole - for all those present it was a sobering interlude in our sheltered and safe lives, gained through the sacrifice of so many in the past.

Getting started

Finally we have got round to starting our Woodland Burial Parks blog!

This is something we have talked about for a long time, but for one reason or another have never managed to put in place, probably because it's all a bit unknown!

I'm sure that once we all get the hang of it, this will become a great place for staff to talk about all aspects of our work in the woodlands.

Looking forward to sharing news and opinions with anyone who is interested in the growing world of natural burials (no pun intended!)

Fran