costs

Comparisons

It is often complicated to work out a comparison between grave, burial and cremation costs, as prices vary so widely. We hope the following will be of some help.

A grave plot in a local churchyard can cost less than £100 in some places. Instead of being funded by grave sales, the Church itself pays for the land and its maintenance. Local authority cemeteries can be fairly affordable, with the lowest cost being around £200 in north Wales and Scotland, while the average appears to more like £900. Many cemeteries will double or more the cost for people not of the parish.

Interment costs may be hard to measure, as these are usually soaked up by funeral directors or embedded into the cost of graves, if the plot is not bought in advance. We just heard of a local authority charging over £600 for interment (that is the cost of digging and refilling the grave).

In almost every case where a grave is purchased in a churchyard or cemetery, a stone monument is bought for the plot. The cost of a simple headstone will usually start at around £1000.

A crematorium's charges will vary as widely. The average charge is a little under £300, including a 30 minute slot in the chapel. Although cremated remains can, in Britain, be scattered where one wishes, crematoria or local authority cemeteries can charge from hundreds of pounds for interment of ashes.

At a natural burial ground, the cost of a burial is immediately reduced because you are not paying for a headstone. That said, the costs vary considerably at natural and green burial grounds. The lowest are the most informal small farm-run sites in the far west and north (as low as around £200), and the most expensive are the formal woodland sites, often in the south and east, with the cost rising as high as £2500. Some fees are inclusive of interment and a memorial tree.