Educator • Ceremonial Care Specialist • Holistic Funeral Director • IISCC • Natural Burials
Your Land. Your Livelihood.
A Living Legacy.
Natural Burial - A Different Opportunity for Farm Diversification
What if part of your land could provide a new source of income, help secure your farm's future, support British families and create space for nature to flourish?
Are you a farmer or landowner?
A farm cannot survive on good intentions alone.
Across the UK, farmers are facing enormous pressures.
Rising costs, unpredictable weather, changing agricultural policies, uncertainty around government support and the increasing financial demands of running a farm
are making it harder to plan confidently for the future.
At the same time, farmers are being asked to do more than ever: produce our food,
protect the countryside, restore wildlife habitats and help address the
environmental challenges facing our country.
All of these things matter. But so does the financial security of
the people who care for our land.
A farm cannot survive on good intentions alone.
Government grants and environmental payment schemes can provide valuable support. However, funding is limited, criteria change, and application windows can close
before everyone who needs support has secured it.
I believe farmers and landowners deserve more opportunities to
build sustainable income on their own terms.
And I believe natural burial could be one of those opportunities.
What If Your Land Could Work Differently - and Earn Differently?
Most of us are familiar with farm diversification through holiday accommodation, farm shops, renewable energy or leisure activities.
But there is another possibility that many farmers and landowners may never have considered.
Establishing a natural burial ground.
A natural burial ground offers families a beautiful, peaceful place to lay someone they love to rest, surrounded by the natural landscape.
For the landowner, it can create an additional commercial enterprise, with income potentially generated through the sale of burial rights and associated services over many years.
For local communities, it provides more choice in how they care for their dead.
And for nature, a thoughtfully designed and responsibly managed burial ground can offer opportunities for habitat restoration, biodiversity and long-term environmental stewardship.
This is not about asking farmers to give away their land or to shoulder even more environmental responsibilities without being paid.
It is about exploring whether part of a farm could become a financially viable enterprise that benefits the landowner, local people and the natural world, ultimately becoming independent of the need for government subsidies.
Less Dependence
on Grants.
More Opportunity
to Build Your
Own Income.
Natural burial is different from an environmental payment scheme.
Its core income need not depend upon securing another government grant or waiting for a new funding round to open.
Instead, a natural burial ground can operate as a commercial service that individuals and families actively choose and pay for.
Depending on the site and the business model, income may come from burial rights, interment services and other appropriate services.
It is important to recognise that this is a long-term enterprise, rather than an immediate or guaranteed income. Establishing a site requires investment, planning approval, environmental assessment and provision for ongoing care.
However, for suitable land in the right location, natural burial offers a genuine diversification opportunity worthy of exploration.
Why should farmers have to choose between earning an income and helping nature recover?
Perhaps we can create more opportunities for them to do both.
Your Farm Can
Continue to Be a Farm
Exploring natural burial does not necessarily mean transforming an entire farm into a burial ground.
A suitable part of an existing holding may be considered, allowing other agricultural activities to continue.
It might be a field, a meadow or another carefully selected part of an estate.
Not every piece of land will be appropriate, particularly where soil conditions, groundwater, flooding, access or existing habitats create constraints.
But where the circumstances are right, natural burial may offer an alternative use for an area of land whilst remaining part of the wider rural landscape.
And that landscape can continue to evolve and support life.
One Opportunity.
Three Important Benefits.
1. For Your Farm and Family
Explore a new source of diversified income that could support the financial resilience of your holding.
Depending on how the project is structured, this might involve retaining ownership of your land whilst working with an experienced natural burial operator, or developing your own independent business.
The right arrangement could help support family succession plans and provide an additional enterprise for future generations, although long-term burial obligations must be carefully considered.
2. For Our Country and Communities
If we are to offer more families the opportunity to choose natural burial, we need more natural burial grounds.
My ambition, through The 50% Natural Burial Campaign, is to see natural burial account for half of all funerals.
This is an ambitious long-term vision, but one I believe is worth pursuing.
Farmers and landowners could play an enormously important part in helping make this possible, creating peaceful places of rest and remembrance within communities across Britain.
3. For Nature and Future Generations
Natural burial grounds can be designed to complement their surroundings and support nature recovery.
Depending on the landscape, this might involve creating or enhancing wildflower-rich grasslands, native woodland, hedgerows and habitats for birds, pollinators and other wildlife.
Unlike some short-term land-use arrangements, burial grounds require provision for long-term stewardship.
With appropriate ecological planning, careful management and financial provision for their future care, they can become places where remembrance and habitat protection exist together.
Land that has helped sustain families in life can also become a place of rest, remembrance and renewal.
How Gentle Endings Natural Burial Grounds Can Help You
I am Holly Lyon-Hawk, a natural burial ground owner, holistic funeral director, end-of-life educator and advocate for environmentally responsible funeral provision.
Coming from a dairy farming background, I have great respect for the people who work our land and the importance of keeping farming financially viable.
Together with my award-winning colleague and business partner, Sian Maplesden, I co-founded Gentle Endings Natural Burial Grounds for People & Pets.
We are passionate about helping create more natural burial grounds across the UK, and we recognise that farmers and landowners need commercially realistic arrangements, professional guidance and confidence about the responsibilities involved.
We welcome enquiries nationally and offer two potential ways of working together.
Option 1: Work in Partnership With Us
You may own suitable land but have no desire to operate a burial ground yourself.
We are interested in exploring partnerships with farmers and landowners who would like to investigate establishing a natural burial ground alongside Gentle Endings.
Together, we can consider potential commercial arrangements, operational responsibilities, financial opportunities and the long-term future of the land.
The aim is to explore an arrangement that is fair, transparent and workable for everyone involved.
Option 2: Establish Your Own Natural Burial Ground With Our Support
Perhaps you would prefer to develop and operate an independent natural burial ground under your own business.
We can provide consultancy and practical guidance to help you explore the opportunity and take your plans forward.
Depending on your needs, our support can encompass initial feasibility, potential demand, business planning, operational considerations, burial ground development and coordination with specialist planning and environmental professionals.
We can help you understand both the opportunities and the obligations before you make significant commitments.
You retain your own vision for your land. We help you explore how to turn that vision into a practical, responsible enterprise.