Calverton: Ancient-style barrow burials return to East Midlands

The barrows will be built as part of a new 27-acre cemetery

Burial mounds inspired by ancient monuments will be built on a new cemetery site in Nottinghamshire.

The mounds, called barrows, will be the first in the East Midlands "in thousands of years", according to the funeral firm behind them.

A.W. Lymn was granted permission for the barrows as part of wider plans for a new 27-acre cemetery on George's Lane, near Calverton.

They will be used to keep the ashes of loved ones safe.

Matthew Lymn Rose, managing director of the funeral firm, believes people might even want to use them for "non-funeral-related services".

The inside of an existing barrow

During a visit to an existing barrow in the south of the country, Mr Lymn Rose said he was "completely blown away" by the site's tranquillity and calmness.

He said: "The building was just so breathtaking that we considered it could actually be a space that people could use for more than [cremated remains]."

From the outside, barrows traditionally look like mounds or hills but inside are built-in crypt-like structures, called niches, where people can keep remains of loved ones.

A.W. Lymn will build two open barrows and another enclosed one built from carved, natural stone, in partnership with barrow design company, Sacred Stones Limited.

How one of the open barrows could look

Plans for the barrows were initially rejected by Gedling Borough Council but were amended so they would be built lower down on the 27-acre site, with some design changes.

The ritual of using burial mounds "dates back millennia" but Mr Lymn Rose said he believed they would be "very popular" today.

"The way we memorialise and the way we celebrate peoples lives now is much more involved than it perhaps once was when people didn't have a lot choice," he said.

There is currently no date for the completion of the new cemetery.