As Emstrey cemetery on London Road, Shrewsbury, is due to close to new burials in around two years’ time, Shropshire Council is to open a new cemetery and Remembrance Park in the town so that burial services can continue to be provided to the people of Shropshire from 2014 onwards.
The Park will also provide an opportunity for woodland burials which are becoming more popular, and include areas for quiet reflection.
The chosen site for the new Remembrance Park is currently a green field site close to the B4386 Mytton Oak Road and the A5, and near to the Bowbrook allotments.
It was chosen as the most suitable site as it is the right size, is in a quiet area, will have good access from main roads, is close to the crematorium and to the chapel at the Longden Road cemetery, and meets a number of environmental conditions.
Why Mytton Oak Remembrance Park?
The name was chosen following a public consultation in which people were invited to put forward their suggestions.
The choice of name recognises the location of the new Park just off Mytton Oak Road, which took its name, in 1934, from the fact that land in the area once belonged to the Mytton family.
To recognise the origins of the Remembrance Park’s chosen name, Shropshire Council plans to plant at the site an oak tree which descends from the Shelton Oak – a tree which for more than 600 years stood close to the remembrance park site on the land once owned by the Mytton family – and from which the name Mytton Oak is thought to originate.
Though the Shelton Oak died in the 1940s, documents show that in the 1880s an oak tree, grown from one of its acorns, was planted in the Dingle in The Quarry.
Now, Shropshire Council plans to take an acorn from the tree in the Dingle and use it to grow an oak tree at the new Remembrance Park – providing a link back to the original tree.
See the plans for the Remembrance Park
The plans went on display in October/November 2012 at drop-in information sessions in Copthorne and Bicton Heath, and at Shirehall and Guildhall in Shrewsbury.
Copies of the displays - which include site plans, artist's impressions and further information about the proposed development - are attached to this page.
The plans have been drawn up by Axis, the design consultants for the development of the site.
What's the latest?
Planning permission for the park was granted on 21 February 2013.
A build contractor is set to be appointed shortly following a competitive tender process, and construction work will begin in spring 2013 once work has been carried out to protect great crested newts at the site.
Work will also be carried out to remove and trim back hedges at the site, before the nesting season begins.
The remembrance park is due to open in spring 2014.
To view the planning application, please follow the link from this page to Shropshire Council's online planing register.