14 DAY TRIAL // The United Kingdom will soon be home to a Neolithic-style burial chamber that is currently under construction and that will be the first structure of its kind the country has seen in over 5,000 years.
As if the news that somebody is building a Neolithic-style burial chamber in the 21st century is not weird enough in itself, it appears that even more weirdness is lurking in the details concerning this project.
Long story short, media reports say that the burial chamber is going to be a fully functional one, meaning that actual people will actually be laid to rest inside it. Of course, they'll have to pay for it.
Daily Mail tells us that, according to farmer Tim Daw, who is building the structure in Wiltshire, one can secure a final resting place in this modern Neolithic-style burial chamber in exchange for £1,000 ($1,680 / €1,240).
Some might say that £1,000 is too much money to pay to make sure you have where to store your or your loved ones' remains after the inevitable encounter with the Grim Reaper. Still, it appears that about 40 people have already secured a spot.
“There’s been lots of interest in it, and already 40 people have reserved a niche inside for their or their loved one’s ashes,” 52-year-old Tim Daw has told the press in a recent interview.
“Some of those are people who have paid for their own ashes to be placed inside, while others already have their loved one’s ashes and said they had not been able to find anywhere they thought was suitable to place them until they heard about this,” he adds.
The structure should be completed and ready to receive its first residents sometime this summer, most likely in August. It will comprise four rooms hidden inside a hollow mound, each of which will accommodate for 250 slots.
Tim Daw says that, in time, he hopes to add at least three other rooms. Needless to say, he will first have to make sure that people are genuinely interested in being laid to rest in Neolithic-style burial chamber, and that his initial investment will eventually pay off.
Then again, people in Wiltshire appear to like his 165 feet (50 meters) long structure very much, so one can only assume this peculiar business will pretty much flourish.
“It’s gone really well. I think it looks superb. Everyone who’s seen it says it is really nice, and it is wonderful to get such positive comments from people. It’s rather touching that people are saying such nice things about it,” the 52-year-old farmer says.