When Memorial Grounds Move – What Happens to the Ashes?
A recent piece in the Ormskirk and Skelmersdale Advertiser raised a poignant question—what happens when the ground beneath our memories changes?
The story centres on Harry Halsall, a former greenkeeper at the Comrades Club Bowling Club. Harry tended the greens for two decades and was a member for over forty years. When he heard the club’s war memorial was being relocated, he wasn’t just upset about the stone itself—he was heartbroken for another reason:
“Funeral directors used to contact me to say a family wanted to scatter ashes around the back of the memorial and onto the green.”
Over the years, the bowling green became a quiet resting place for many ex-servicemen and women—people whose lives were tied to the club, the community, and the camaraderie it represented.
The club, once affectionately known as “the Wembley of the North”, is now closed, its grounds set for redevelopment. The memorial is being moved, and while a rededication ceremony is planned, the fate of the ashes scattered there is uncertain.
A club trustee told the paper that he would ask the council to include the ashes’ original soil in the relocation and to allow future scattering at the new site—an honourable and sensitive step.
When the Ground Beneath Us Shifts
Stories like this are not uncommon. Places that seem permanent rarely are. Bowling greens, parks, woodland edges, even beloved gardens—all are vulnerable to change.
For those who chose to scatter ashes there, the emotional connection is as strong as ever, but the physical permanence isn’t guaranteed. Moving a memorial can never move the memories; yet the symbolic act of transferring some of the soil offers at least a gesture of continuity.
Still, it’s a bittersweet truth: urban development and changing land use mean that once-quiet corners of remembrance can easily be swept into progress.
Thinking Ahead When Choosing a Scattering Place
For anyone planning ahead—or for families making that choice now—it’s worth reflecting on what permanence really means.
Here are a few gentle suggestions:
Choose locations protected by law — such as coastal areas, beaches, or national parks.
Consider scattering over water, where the space is open and timeless, and where nature itself becomes the keeper of memory.
Avoid land likely to be redeveloped, such as private clubs, farmland or urban green belts.
Think symbolically, not geographically. What matters is the act and the intention, not the exact coordinates.
A Gentle Word from Us
If the idea of losing a resting place worries you, a water-based ceremony may offer peace of mind and permanence of a different kind.
Our biodegradable water urns are crafted for ceremonies on rivers, lakes and at sea — designed to float briefly before gently releasing the ashes below the surface.
These ceremonies are timeless, unaffected by future development, and deeply moving for families who want to let go in a way that feels both natural and lasting.
Whether you choose a Scottish loch, a Devon estuary, or the open sea, the moment will remain untouchable — carried on the water, not tied to the land.