Weird question.

[zuberfamilyor]

In England do they keep the grave sites? In the US the graves remain. My grandmother from Germany says in Germany that after a 20 year period they reuse the grave. Which is the way things are done in England?
I know dumb question....

[gardener]

I think that it is the usual English mish mash of things! I may be wrong but I believe it will vary depending on the churchyard or cemetry.
One site I just looked at says that prior to 2000 Exclusive Rights to Burial could be purchased and were valid for 100 years (could be passed to next of kin) but since 2000 it is only valid for 50 years. And then there are Public Graves which have no rights associated with them.
Local authority cemeteries are probably bound by local council bye laws but churchyards may well be administered by the parish council or the church council even.
In the case of older disused chuchyards there has been quite a lot of of re-purposing going on so a burial site could be a car park by now. There doesn't seem to be anything to prevent the removal of gravestones even, if the area is to be tidied-up or the stones are deemed dangerous to the public. On the otherhand there are a lot of old churchyards which are well kept and have graves which are marked clearly and have not been reused even after many years.

[snoopysue]

In Denmark you have the grave for a certain number of years, then it can be reused. It is possible to pay for extra years.
Although even after the initial period has run out, the grave may remain. My husband's grandfather's grave remained for several years after the initial period (we'd visit it when we were in the area), and has only recently been cleared. It's in a small rural village where there probably aren't many burials. After clearing the grave the headstones are kept in a seperate area of the graveyard for a few years.
Some older graveyards are listed, and the graves in those are not cleared.