Orthodox Jews, Muslims and the Greek Orthodox Church do not allow cremation. It is accepted by all other Christian denominations, Sikhs, Hindus, Parsees and Buddhists.
You will need two medical certificates from two separate doctors, which the doctors will charge for. If the person who has died had a pacemaker, this will have to be removed. Your funeral director will arrange all this for you and help you fill in the paperwork.
Certain materials (such as glass, some metals and PVC) may not be cremated with the person who has died. If you would like an item to stay with the person who has died, your funeral director will advise you. Once the coffin is at the crematorium, we cannot open it to recover any items.
Yes. You can have a religious or a non-religious service, or no service at all. The service must be carried out within the time allowed for each funeral, which varies between each crematorium. If you prefer, you can hold a service in a separate place, like a church, followed by a ceremony at the crematorium. You can arrange for your own minister to carry out the service, or the funeral director will help you find a suitable person.
Mourners gather at the crematorium at an arranged time. When the coffin arrives, the close family will follow it into the chapel, followed by everyone else, and someone will direct you to your seats. The coffin will be placed on a platform and the service will start.
Towards the end of the service, the coffin will usually be hidden from view by curtains or be taken out of the chapel. If you are arranging a funeral and would prefer the coffin to remain on view until everyone has left, we can arrange that for you.
At the end of the service, the funeral director will lead the close family out of the chapel, followed by the other mourners. You will have an opportunity to look at the floral tributes and the family will have time to thank people for coming.
Always the same day, and usually within a few hours. A close member of the family may witness the cremation, as some religions require. If you would like to arrange this, please tell the funeral director when you make the funeral arrangements.
The coffin is taken into a room where the nameplate is checked again. An identity card is then attached to the cremator where the coffin is placed and is kept with the cremated remains until they leave the crematorium.
The coffin is placed into the cremator. The heat is very intense and the process takes about 90 minutes. When the cremation is finished, all that is left is small amounts of bone. These are taken from the cremator, cooled and placed in a machine which reduces the bone to ashes. These are the cremated remains which are put into a container.
Each cremator is only large enough to take one coffin. When a cremation has finished, the cremated remains are placed into a separate chamber within the cremator for cooling. Once reduced, they are put into an individually identified container.
You can arrange through your funeral director or the crematorium for the ashes to be scattered or buried in the crematorium garden of remembrance. If you like, you can go to the ceremony. Some gardens of remembrance give you the opportunity to bury the remains under a bush or tree, or to put them in a niche (a sealed place for ashes in a wall, and marked with a plaque). Or, the ashes can be returned to you. Your funeral director will help you and can show you a choice of urns.
The crematorium or funeral director will keep the ashes for a while until you decide what to do. Some may make a small charge for this after a certain period.
The ashes can be scattered or buried in the crematorium garden or placed in a family grave in a churchyard or cemetery. If you want to scatter the ashes elsewhere, you need the permission of the landowner. If you want to bury the ashes in a private garden, you should consider the long-term implications such as if you sell the house.
At many crematoriums there is a choice of memorials available including plaques, niches and rose bushes, and some have a book of remembrance that you can have an entry in. Your funeral director will be able to help you or speak to the crematorium for you. Please see our section on Memorials.
The gardens are open to the public and you can visit them when you like during opening times. Many crematoriums also hold an open day and memorial service once a year.
The funeral director can arrange for the ashes to be sent to another part of the UK. If you want them sent to another country, there may be a small fee to cover legal paperwork.
