Planning a burial

We are dedicated to delivering compassionate, professional, and respectful burial services.

Our team ensures privacy, dignity, and fairness while meeting your individual needs.

From clear communication to tailored choices, we uphold the highest standards, providing care and support throughout every step of your experience.

Step 1: Type of burial

Whether you are organising a burial or planning ahead, you need to decide what type of burial you want as this will help determine the plot and availability. It may also affect the type of coffin required and any memorial plans.

Options at Brookwood Cemetery include:

• • Local resident burials
  • All faith and non-faith burials
  • Muslim burials
  • Catholic burials
  • Natural burials
  • Woodland burials
  • Mausoleum enclosure (above ground burial)
  • Ashes interment
  • Ashes scattering

Step 2: Contact the cemetery office

Brookwood Cemetery is unlike other cemeteries. It is divided into plots and sections which offer a far greater range of choice when it comes to selecting a final resting place.

Please contact the cemetery office to discuss your needs and arrange a site visit to confirm your preferred plot and grave location.

If burial is imminent, you also need to agree a date and time for interment.

To purchase your preferred grave location and proceed with making arrangements, we will provide you with the following documents which need to be completed and returned to the cemetery office:

• • Notice of Interment (completed by you and/or your funeral director)
  • Application to Purchase Exclusive Right of Burial
  • Privacy Notice and Consent Form
  • Terms and Conditions (plots 104 and 112 only)

You can also download these documents from our document library.

Step 3: Grave ownership

Once you have identified and purchased your preferred grave location, we will grant you Exclusive Right of Burial meaning only you can decide who is buried in that grave.

Only one person can be interred in each grave, but you can reserve the grave space next to it and purchase the land in between.

Exclusive Right of Burial is granted for 50 or 100 years and can be renewed or extended.

You will be issued with a Deed of Grant of Exclusive Right of Burial (your deeds) upon receipt of payment, along with a copy of our rules and regulations.

Read our rules and regulations

Step 4: Burial

We can host and conduct burials Monday to Friday, 10am to 3pm and from 10am to 2pm on Saturdays. Timings may vary in winter months. We can accommodate next day burials. These need to be arranged by 2pm for burial the following day.

Even if you already own a grave site, you must contact the cemetery office to agree a date and time for interment and pay the interment fee.

Before a burial can proceed we must have received your completed documents (see Step 2).

You must also have a Registrar’s Certificate, Coroner’s Order or other legally required authorisation for burial.

Read more about what happens on the day of burial

Step 5: Installing a memorial

Depending on the type of burial chosen, a memorial or headstone can be added once the grave has had time to settle. This can take up to 12 months for coffin burials, and up to five years for shroud and timber burials.

For interred ashes, a memorial can be added immediately.

Read more about installing a memorial 

Step 6: Maintaining a grave

To preserve the character of the cemetery and protect the local wildlife we do not allow the following:

• • artificial flowers
  • wind chimes and windmills
  • flags and balloons
  • lights and candles
  • any kind of fencing
  • anything made of glass
  • stones and loose chippings (unless within a kerb set memorial)

We discourage the use of plastic and reserve the right to remove any item we consider unsuitable from any grave without notice. Any item removed will be retained at the cemetery office for 14 days pending collection, after which it will be disposed of.

Read more about maintaining a grave