Feldy View Woodland Cemetery opened in April 2001.

Feldy View is a natural woodland so therefore no adornments are permitted. (Please click here to view Feldy View Rules & Regulations)

Feldy View Woodland introduces the special concept of a natural resting place in the unique location of Mersea Island on the Blackwater Estuary. Here each burial will help to make this tranquil spot into a wildlife sanctuary - a living place filled with native trees, wildflowers and wildlife.

This woodland burial ground slopes towards an inlet called the Strood channel where, at low tide, wading birds seek nourishment from the silver mud of the saltmarshes. Beyond the fleets, wild and remote, lies Ray Island and to the west the evening sun slips below the green waste of Feldy Marsh.

The creeks surrounding Mersea Island have perhaps been best described by Victorian Author and East Mersea Rector, The Reverend Sabine Gould, in his book Mehalah - A story of Island Life.
"Yet it is not without beauty... In summer the thrift mantles the marshes with shot satin, passing through all graduations of tint from maiden's blush to lily white. Thereafter a purple glow steals over the waste, as the sea lavender bursts into flower and simultaneously every creek and pool is royally fringed with sea aster."

Feldy View offers a natural alternative to a traditional graveyard with rows of headstones. Only softwood caskets can be used in the burial ground and simple wooden memorial plaques or crosses put in place - everything has been chosen in order that it may be allowed to decay naturally and eventually become part of the natural landscape. A living memorial to loved ones.

Not every grave is commemorated with a tree. Friends and relatives of the bereaved are welcome to plant wildflowers or bulbs (with permission). The woodland will not be maintained in the normal neat and tidy manner that people are accustomed to, but left to mature as a true woodland glade. The grass is cut annually to encourage wildflowers, at other times swathes are cut through the pasture to provide pathways where visitors may walk and quietly remember.

Each grave is carefully planned and precisely recorded so that it can be easily located by future generations. The cemetery will survive in perpetuity and West Mersea Town Council will hold the land and plots in permanent trust. A special area has been set aside for the burial of babies and children.

Your family or funeral directors may choose an appropriate service - interments and cremations can be undertaken with or without consecration.
All burial plots are single depth graves. Ashes plots can be reopened. 

The first people to be buried in Feldy View Woodland Cemetery were Kathleen Bisco, Eric Hardy, Geoffrey Shutes and Norman Ward.

Location map: Feldy View Woodland Cemetery, Firs Road, West Mersea, Mersea Island, Essex, CO5 8JR