A Daventry-based celebrant brings the first ever Coffin Club to the town

An independent wedding and funeral celebrant based in Daventry is bringing people together to learn about the variety of options for life and death celebrations through a community group.

Coffin Club West Northamptonshire, a non-profit organisation and an affiliated group under the Coffin Club UK social franchise and training organisation, is rethinking celebrancy and the options available to every individual at the end of their life.

Sheron Burt, the 56-year-old founder of Coffin Club West Northamptonshire, has been a celebrant for more than seven years.

She creates and performs ceremonies for weddings, renewal of vows, funerals, and celebrations of life, mainly covering the Northamptonshire area, West Midlands, and East Midlands, but can travel further, including abroad, for events.

“My ceremonies honour and celebrate all varieties of cultural beliefs,” said Sheron.

Sheron, originally from Birmingham, has been living in Daventry for more than 20 years. Previously employed as a healthcare assistant for the NHS, she decided to embark on this journey after attending a funeral led by a celebrant.

“After attending the funeral service of my father-in-law, I came away feeling really lifted and I think it came down to the way the celebrant conducted the funeral. She paid attention to the details about him and his life and she spoke about him as though she knew him personally,” said Sheron.

In 2016, Sheron trained with The Fellowship of Professional Celebrants organisation to become a funeral celebrant, then, a year later, she went back and retrained to become a marriage and family celebrant.

“I am passionate about empowering people to make informed choices about their final farewell. I believe that our relationship with death and dying needs to be improved.

“My role is to celebrate the person’s life in a respectful and dignified manner that’s adhering to the individual, who they were, what they believed in, and what they loved. I like to think that I am a soothing balm to the grieving process,” said Sheron.

In June 2023, Sheron decided to launch the first ever Coffin Club in Daventry. She collaborated with Kate Tym and Kate Dyer, the founders of Coffin Club UK and two award-winning celebrants, to bring people together to learn about the various alternatives for end of life celebrations.

“I founded the club to inform people about the options available to them when they or their loved ones die. I want to empower people to make their own choices. It is absolutely fine if they turn around at the end of the day and say that they still want the crematorium, the church, or the place of worship. My aim is to educate them so they would have more choices to pick from,” said Sheron.

The aim of the Coffin Club is to provide a safe and friendly environment where individuals can talk openly and help each other overcome their fears about death, leading towards a better mental health outcome and a soothing balm to the bereavement process.

Although many funerals take place at a crematorium or church, the events can be held anywhere with the property owner's permission, such as at home, in a garden, a village hall, a pub or any other place that could be appropriate for the deceased.

“We need to break the taboo around such conversations. As you well know, we tend to defend ourselves against pain. Nobody wants to talk about death and people are afraid to talk about it.

“If you plan a birth or a wedding, why not plan your death or talk about it so that people are aware of what you want? It is not morbid. It is less of a hardship for your loved ones if you talk about things with them before you die. If you have had a conversation before, it can give you a feeling of release of responsibility and burden,” said Sheron.

A celebrant cannot perform a legally binding marriage or civil partnership. Ceremonies led by celebrants are not yet legally recognised in England and Wales. As a result, if individuals want a marriage or civil partnership to be legally acknowledged, they need to complete the paperwork separately.

“There are quite a lot of things you can do when it comes to having your ceremony with a celebrant, once the legal side has been completed,” said Sheron.

A funeral celebrant assists and supports the bereaved family in preparing the funeral to ensure that it honours the life of the person who has passed away. The burial or cremation must be handled by a local authority.

“You can have a celebration of life without the deceased present,” said Sheron.

Sheron has a lot of future plans for the local Coffin Club group, including workshops and speaker’s lectures.

“There is a taboo around talking about death. I just want people to know that it is okay to talk about it and touch on things you can't understand. Help is out there. I’m here to educate you and answer any questions as best I can, or to put you in touch with people that can answer those questions.

“It should be embraced. It does not matter how old you are. You should educate yourself and know what is out there,” said Sheron.

Residents can contact Sheron at [email protected] or find a celebrant in their area through the Coffin Club’s directory. The local Coffin Club can be found on Facebook and Instagram.