Proud to be the first

At Tester & Jones Funeral Services, we are very proud to be the first funeral director to organise a burial, ashes interment and natural burial at Summersales Burial Ground. The new town cemetery in London Road (just down the road from our building) was officially opened on Monday 12 May.

Interestingly, the natural burial involved one of the new mushroom coffins we shared news about recently and it was so interesting to have a ‘living coffin’ at our premises. The coffin came beautifully lined with moss and we witnessed mushrooms continuing to grow on the outside during its time with us.

The natural burial site at Summersales is looking absolutely beautiful now and is covered with a meadow of wildflowers – attracting all sorts of wildlife, including butterflies.

Owned and managed by Crowborough Town Council, Summersales offers coffin and ashes interments (in the Forest View Garden of Remembrance), as well as three new options – natural burials the Summersales Meadow; the Ashdown Family Garden, allowing families to be buried together in one location; and Summersales Lea, an area for four circular garden beds, which will be available to book for the scattering of ashes. There is also The Children’s Garden.

At the centre of the plot is The Summersales Room, a bright stand-alone building with a glass frontage with seating for up to 40 people. We organised a service there recently and it really is a lovely space.

The burial ground is now open for visitors daily (and there’s plenty of parking on site):

April to September: 08.30 to 20.00

October to March: 09.00 to 15.30

If you are interested in finding out more, please do call our team on: 01892 611811 or just call in.