There isn’t a better resting place than a cosy long barrow
FArMer and part-time Stonehenge warden Tim Daw was indeed the first for several millennia to commission a ‘Stone Age’ burial chamber (Mail). The idea took shape while he was talking to a historian and architect friend about having his remains laid to rest in a burial chamber on his farmland at All Cannings in Wiltshire. After detailed research and planning, and Wiltshire County Council had granted permission, the structure started to take form, designed and based on West Kennet long barrow near Avebury. This wasn’t conceived as a business venture, but out of a passion for all things Stone Age. Though Tim’s burial niches are priced to cover his £250,000 investment, he won’t make huge profits from selling their 99-year leases. When he started, he had no idea if there would be a demand at all. I bought my single niche long ago for far less than the £2,000 Toby Angel is asking for those in his version, being built near St neots in Cambridgeshire. As a native of Wiltshire, my childhood village is not ten miles from the site of Tim’s barrow, and my first teaching post was just two miles down the road. I was excited to read of Tim’s venture and reserved my niche sight unseen before the barrow was completed. Later, I visited this oasis of calm and serenity — not old, damp or dusty, but warm, cosy and cocooning — and although not yet ready to depart this world, I feel completely at ease with my choice of final resting place. This unobtrusive grass mound in the corner of a peaceful field, with one of the nine Wiltshire White Horses in view, is exactly where I want to be. The Morris side with which I danced until recently has promised to attend my ‘inurnment’ and have even choreographed a new dance entitled Done And Dusted, which they will perform on top of the mound. I have no doubt that such structures will appeal to many people in our secular society and go some way to aleviate the problem of insensitive ‘conveyor belt’ funerals and lack of churchyard burial space. But none will be as special as the first — the wonderful All Cannings long barrow.
Mrs MAGGIE WEBSTER, Vale, Guernsey.