The Woodland Cemetery (Cheshunt)
The Woodland Cemetery allows members to choose to be buried in an environmentally-friendly way, in a beautiful natural environment, surrounded by newly planted trees. The burial can include a coffin made from plain wood, bamboo or wicker, all of which decompose naturally. If you wish, the grave can be marked with a small flat gravestone which is intended to sink into the ground over the years.
Guidance for relatives about the burial procedure and planting at the Woodland Cemetery can be found here with a list of permitted plants.
The Woodland Cemetery has a modern prayer hall built of environmentally friendly materials. There is a video link for Cohanim. Members can pay tribute to a loved one by planting a memorial tree or helping to sponsor the costs of construction of either the prayer hall or the columbarium and planned memorial garden.
The Lawn section provides a green alternative for Jewish and non-Jewish burials, with graves being marked by a simple upright stone.
Woodland burials meet all the halachic requirements for a Jewish burial and also help us to perform the mitzvah of Bal Tashchit . By developing a series of laws designed to improve the environmental quality of life, we are beginning to turn the negative meaning of this mitzvah: ‘you shall not destroy’, into the positive command ‘you shall maintain’. – Rabbi Paul Freedman
Non Jewish Partners
For the first time, JJBS can arrange to bury Jewish people with their non-Jewish partners in line with the fundamental progressive Jewish value of inclusiveness. These burials take place in double-depth graves in either the woodland or lawn sections of the Cemetery.
Cremation
We usually arrange for the service of cremation to be at Golders Green Crematorium at Hoop Lane.
The remains may then be transferred to the Woodland Cemetery which has a columbarium built in a separate landscaped area where cremated remains may be interred with a memorial plaque.
Directions
if you are coming from the M25, then come off at J25 and take the A10 towards London – get into the right hand lane, and take the first right off the A10 which is Bullsmoor Lane, then at the almost invisible mini-roundabout at the T junction at the end of Bullsmoor Lane, turn right and follow the road round, and as you go past the Spurs training ground on the left there is a very small right turn called Bulls Cross Ride, turn down there and go across the M25 and then about 100 yards down on the left is the Western Cemetery, turn in to the drive and immediately turn left and follow the road almost a mile up to the Woodland cemetery.
If you are coming from the A406 then at the Great Cambridge roundabout go down the A10 towards Hertford, and at the last junction before the M25 turn left down Bullsmoor Lane and the rest is the same.
Click here for planting guidance booklet
Woodland Cemetery
Bulls Cross Ride
Cheshunt
Waltham Cross
EN7 5PF
Other Cemeteries
* JJBS has a large dedicated area in this cemetery which is run by the Western Foundation under Orthodox Jewish guidelines. There are two prayer halls which hold 100 or 150 mourners, each with a Cohen room. Each grave has an upright headstone. There is a small Memorial garden adjacent to the Western which may be visited during opening hours. This is run by the JJBS.