Nottinghamshire’s largest independent funeral directors, A.W. Lymn The Family Funeral Service, has been given the green light to build the first and only modern barrow site in the East Midlands.
The handcrafted stone barrows, which draw inspiration from our ancient ancestors’ monuments, will be located on George’s Lane just outside the village of Calverton, following the approval of the family business’s planning application by Gedling Borough Council.
The site was originally granted permission to be a cemetery in August 2022. Once this approval was secured, A.W. Lymn started to consider how part of the site could be transformed to offer a different form of memorial – the barrows.
Working closely with planning officers, A.W. Lymn resubmitted its planning application for one closed and two open barrows on a small part of the 27-acre cemetery in late 2023. Having addressed original concerns and offering significant changes to the design, the application has now been approved.
Working in partnership with the world’s only barrow design and construction business, Sacred Stones Limited, the family funeral directors wanted to bring the opportunity for those in Nottinghamshire to adopt a timeless way of commemorating those who are no longer with us.
Pete Clarson, Commercial Director at A.W. Lymn, said: “When it comes to saying a final goodbye, we recognise that this doesn’t always look the same for everyone. Having a variety of options to choose from to suit your personal needs, preferences and wishes is so incredibly important.
“The barrows, however, are more than a place for ashes to be laid to rest. It’s a place where recently bereaved can go to understand their grief, accept their loss, and celebrate a life. Working alongside Sacred Stones, we will now be able to bring this vision to fruition for the people of Nottinghamshire and the wider region. We will soon be offering a very unique and timeless memorial option, while also actively respecting the rural character of the site.”
The ritual of using burial mounds (barrows) is one of the oldest funeral traditions in Britain, dating back millennia. The beautiful, natural-looking barrows are designed with niches for cremated remains to be placed within, providing a peaceful setting for a service and final resting place.
For more than a century, A.W. Lymn has been helping the bereaved in the region with quality of service and value for money at the heart of its ethos. The business is constantly reflecting upon and listening to feedback from the families it serves and understands that the barrow burial style is one which will appeal to a growing proportion of its customers.
Toby Angel, Managing Director of Sacred Stones, said: “We’ve been working on the barrow scheme with A.W. Lymn for some time now and we are honoured to be partnering with a family business that, like barrows, has and will continue to stand the test of time.”
The Calverton cemetery, which is the business’s first company-owned burial site, and barrows scheme, forms part of A.W. Lymn’s plan to extend its offering as it continues to expand across the region, with a total of 27 funeral homes throughout Nottinghamshire and South Derbyshire.
