Building the Woodland Cemetery has been a long process, starting back in 2017 looking for suitable land.
Anyone visiting the cemetery on Boston Road recently may have noticed that there are not many vacant grave spaces remaining, and for this reason the Town Council has been working hard to create a new cemetery for the town. The new cemetery is located behind the Community Woodland on Scrivelsby Road, and is called Horncastle Woodland Cemetery.
Town and Parish Councils do not have a legal obligation to provide burial land for residents, so the Town Council could simply close the current cemetery when it is full which would mean that Horncastle residents would have to be buried outside the parish. However, Horncastle Town Council understands the importance of having a cemetery within the town, and has been working hard to ensure that when the current cemetery is full, town residents can continue to lay their loved ones to rest within Horncastle.
In August 2018 the Town Council purchased the new cemetery site, and since then planning permission for change of use to a burial land has been acquired and a lot of work has been done to develop the field into a new cemetery. The final tasks are due to be completed by the end of March 2023, and it is planned to open the cemetery in the Spring.
It is anticipated that the new cemetery will have enough grave spaces to serve the community for at least 200 years, and this includes a green burial section so that trees can be planted in the place of headstones.
Landscaping of the site has started, with 50 trees kindly provided by Lincolnshire County Council from their treescape fund, and Crowders Nurseries also generously donated a selection of shrubs. Thanks to the Lincolnshire County Council community Wildlife grant we have been able to plant a wildflower area, create an Hibernaculum for the wildlife living around the pond, and install nesting boxes for House Martins, Sparrows and Owls.
The Woodland Cemetery was officially opened by the Mayor Cllr Matt Wilkinson on 20th May 2023.
If you want to find out about reserving a plot at the Woodland Cemetery, please see the Woodland Cemetery page.
Below are the plans of how the new cemetery will be laid out.
