The Martinsey Isle Trust

and the Glaston Rose Humane Company

Creating an idyll of Martinsey and Lidney Islands
Natural Burial honouring life's sacred thresholds

The Martinsey Isle Trust
was co-founded in 2002 by
David Wasley, its inspiration,
and Judith Pidgeon, its grounder

The Martinsey Isle Trust aims to protect sacred sites in and around Glastonbury and in particular to purchase or protect Martinsey and Lidney, two of the sacred Islands centred upon Glastonbury (subject to agreement with the farmer with whom the Trust is in consultation).

Part of that dream is to provide a 'poustinia' and place of spiritual rest, regeneration and succour, for the newly dead and their loved ones - and a resource centre for scholarship and information.

The Martinsey Isle Trust is actively engaged in research into the spiritual and historical traditions of Glastonbury and area.

This enquiry centres around the gift of the seven holy islands purported to have been given to Joseph of Arimathea; the first above ground church in England; the story of King Arthur; and the earlier and prehistoric origins for such veneration.

Eternally renowned as the place for 'the ingress and egress of souls' and 'the isle of the dead', the Martinsey Isle Trust hopes to create a natural burial ground of choice beneath the Tor - land has been purchased for this and the Trust continues to try to achieve planning permission for usage as a burial ground.

To help to release some of the fear, guilt, denial, distancing and taboo which so often surround death and dying, and to consider more fully the everlasting nature of the spiritual self, the Martinsey Isle Trust provides workshops, talks and events on subjects such as:

• Spiritual and practical preparation for death and dying - long before these occur;

• Conscious living, conscious dying, where death may inform life and life informs death;

• Exploring life before life and life after death;

• Assisting soul companionship during and after death;

• Alternative funerals and the best of the traditional;

• Life-death-life cycle of nature;

• Surveying and care of local flora and fauna.

Click for more information:

More about the Trust

About Death and Dying

More on Death and Dying

Activities and Events

Resources

Bats About the Tor

The Isle of Martinsey

The Martinsey Isle Trust also offers guidance on where to find information on issues surrounding death and dying, through its links with the Natural Death Centre (0207 359 8391) and Transitus, a resource network listing.

An essential element of the natural death movement is the care, protection and sustainability of the landscape, its wildlife and all who live upon it. The Martinsey Isle Trust believes that 'No one can truly own land. It belongs to us all. Let us care for it reverently, and protectively, in life and in death.'

The Martinsey Isle Trust

Ivy Cottage, Bath Road
Sturminster Newton, Dorset DT10 1DU, UK
Telephone: 01258 475 125