Stapenhill Cemetery FAQs

We are open for appointments week days and weekends.

Yes, please book an appointment with one of our cemetery officers.

Names, addresses and dates of death of anyone you wish to find.

Yes. Please see our fees and charges.

Yes, we do have a policy for the installation of memorial benches, however there are only a few locations for benches within the cemetery grounds so it is based on availability.  Please contact the cemetery office.

No, we no longer offer this service.

This means that no one, apart from yourself, may be buried in the grave without your written consent.

Have you contacted a funeral director to perform the funeral for you?

Yes, but the fees are adjusted accordingly. Please see our price list.

We can’t recommend a specific funeral director but we can supply a list of ones in the area.

See our price list

The grave is filled immediately after mourners have left the graveside. However you may wish as a family to do this. Please advise the cemetery office or funeral directors at the point of booking.

Yes. When families want this, we need to be made aware at the point of booking.

We usually recommend you wait at least 6 months so that the earth can settle. We would also recommend you contact a stonemason as soon as possible to discuss your requirements.

A memorial permit is required from the Cemeteries Office to erect, refix, clean, renovate any memorial.  Before the memorial can be erected a completed memorial applications would be completed by an approved stone mason and submitted to the cemetery, permission from the grave owner must be given on the application.

No, not always but we will show you various locations within the cemetery that are available.

The grave must be deep enough to allow for the depth of coffins/caskets that are buried but also to accommodate legal requirements and any future burials in that grave.

Graves cannot be sold for more than 50 years.

When a new grave is purchased it is not the ownership of the land itself that is purchased, but the rights to have burials take place. These rights are granted, together with the rights to erect a memorial on the grave, in accordance with the rules and regulations of the cemetery.

When you buy a grave you purchase the rights of burial in that grave for a set period of time. If the lease is not renewed, the burial rights will run out.  No further internments may then be allowed in the grave.  The grave then becomes the responsibility and property of East Staffordshire Borough Council

The grave then becomes the responsibility and property of East Staffordshire Borough Council.

Please see our transfer of ownership page.

Ownership of the right of burial in a grave can be transferred from a deceased owner via their estate. Each case is examined individually and can be highly complex. If you need to transfer ownership when all owners are deceased, please contact us.   The process is also explained in detail on our transfer of ownership page. If we are not contacted the grave then becomes the responsibility and property of East Staffs Borough Council.

The owner of the grave will need to be sought by the family.  We are not able to share that information.

The Cemetery currently carries out approximately 200 burials per year.

We have a cremated remains section or existing graves where ashes can be buried. When ashes are strewn elsewhere, prior permission must be sought and any local rules regulations obeyed.

The Woodland Burial area is specifically for those who wish to be buried in an informal setting and, in so doing, to contribute to the establishment of a woodland for the benefit of future generations and wildlife. Burials are marked with the planting of a tree on the grave. No other memorials are permitted in this area.

Each grave plot will also be discreetly marked to enable it to be identified in the future. Woodland Burial graves are not traditional cemetery graves – whilst they may be visited, they should not be tended but be allowed to form a natural part of the site, which will, in time, be established as a mixed deciduous woodland. There are no specific areas within the woodland set aside for different faiths or denominations.

All graves will be recorded on a plan to allow for location in the future; please bear in mind, however, that they will be amongst the undergrowth of the woodland. The grass will only be cut at a frequency that will encourage wild flowers, unlike the more formal parts of the Cemetery. As with any typical wood, some trees will flourish while others will be suppressed by those more dominant. It is not possible, therefore, to guarantee the life span of any one particular tree.