The following pages have been designed to provide information on aspects of Cremation and it processes in an attempt to eleviate people’s fears and preconceived ideas about a traditionally ‘taboo’ subject.  

Below is a brief history of cremation and how it came about over a hundred years ago and significant events since.  Other pages include frequently asked questions, a full copy of the Cremation Code of Practice and details of our Kingsdown Crematorium.

Burial and Cremation Records

The cemetery and crematorium service have records of burials and cremations for Council administered sites only. For more information please click on the link below

Burial and Cremation Records

For information about costs of cremation services please click on the link below

Table of Fees

Introduction

During the time of the ancient Roman and Greek civilizations cremation had been generally adopted as a method of disposing of the dead. With the advent and spread of Christianity, however, and it's concomitant belief in the resurrection of the dead, cremation fell into disfavour and by the fifth century the practice had become almost completely obsolete.

The first cremation

On 26th March 1885 the first official cremation at Woking took place. Mrs. Pickersgill, a well-known figure in literary and scientific circles, was the first of three cremations that year. Mr. Charles William Carpenter was cremated on 19th October and in December the third cremation.  In 1886 there were ten cremations and during the year 1888, there were a total of 28.

First provincial crematorium

Manchester had the honour of providing the first crematorium in the provinces, when in 1892 a group of public-spirited citizens formed a company which built, on the south side of the city, the crematorium which has played a considerable part in the development of cremation in the North West.

First municipal crematorium

In the following year, the Darlington Cremation Society built a crematorium in the grounds of the public cemetery. It was in this year, however, that a most significant event occurred: the opening of the first municipal crematorium in Great Britain at Hull. Until now, private individuals were, of their own accord.  Now, for the first time, a local authority had acknowledged how important it was, both socially and economically, to provide cremation services for the community.

By the end of the year 1904 there were nine crematoria in operation in Great Britain, situated at Woking, Manchester, Glasgow, Liverpool, Hull, Darlington, Leicester, Golders Green and Birmingham. Of these, two (Hull and Leicester) the number of cremations carried out at these crematoria was 569. Since the opening of the Woking Crematorium in 1885 there had been a total of 4,409 cremations in Great Britain, of which over half had taken place at Woking.

Expansion-home and abroad

The cremation movement was slowly spreading to various parts of the British Empire. The first crematorium was established in South Africa in 1926. The following year the first crematorium was built in New Zealand. At home, new crematoria had appeared at Bristol and Ipswich.  By the end of 1934 this figure had risen to 8,337 cremations since 1885.

Archbishop Temple cremated

In 1941 a fourth member of the Royal Family, H.R.H. the Duke of Connaught and Strathearn, son of Queen Victoria, was cremated, but, important though this event was, perhaps the more far-reaching in its consequences was the cremation in 1944 of Dr. William Temple, the Archbishop of Canterbury, at Charing Crematorium, Kent. Dr. Temple was the first Primate of All England to be cremated and there can be no question that his cremation had an immense effect upon the opinion of church people not only in this country, but also throughout the whole Anglican community.

The Pope lifts the ban

The International Cremation Federation had for many years fought for the repeal of the canons forbidding Roman Catholics to adopt cremation. The Federation appealed to all prelates to support its request at the Council of Churches in Rome and eventually in July 1963 the Pope proclaimed it legal within the Church to seek cremation without incurring the penalties hitherto attached to such action. Only if it were evident that cremation was being sought either as a denial of Christian teaching or out of hatred for the Catholic Church and the Faith would the penalties still apply.

Present Day

Today many people accept cremation, this is reflected in the statistic for the year 2000 in which out of 617,001 recorded deaths a total of 437,609 resulted in the deceased being cremated.  This works out at 70.9%.

By the year 2000 a recorded total of 17,782,084 people had been cremated in the United Kingdom.