Modernised crematorium opens in Bradford

A NEW, multi-million-pound crematorium has opened in Bradford, writes Chris Young.

Shay Grange in Heaton replaces Nab Wood Crematorium as Bradford Council’s main crematorium in the north of the district. Based off Long Lane, the crematorium has cost almost £9 million and is part of a wider programme to upgrade the district’s ageing crematoria.

The facility has been built on a green belt site; the council argued this was required as rules dictate crematoria cannot be built close to homes or main roads.

Surrounded by landscaped gardens, the crematorium has a 123-space car park, with spaces for coaches as well as electric car charging points. There are expansive waiting rooms, as well as private spaces where families can meet funeral directors.

The building is the first crematorium in the country to feature screens that can divide the room or hide the coffin if families do not want to see it during the service.

Antonio Smith, bereavement services manager, said: “It allows us to do a service in many different ways – there will be no set format for a service.”

One of the more unusual features is a side room where families can watch the coffin being taken into the oven. A button in this side room even allows mourners to start the cremation process themselves.

Smith said a request for such a facility had been made in the past by people from the Sikh or Hindu faith.

The crematorium will also be the new home for the Council’s bereavement services. For the first time all the district’s burial records have been brought together in one location. Some of these records date back as far as 1857. Around 3,000 cremations each year are currently carried out at three crematoria managed by Bradford Council.

Councillor Sarah Ferriby, Bradford council’s executive member for healthy people and places, said: “This work is the latest step in our strategy to create a modern, sustainable and environment-friendly bereavement service for the people of the district. We want to provide practical, sympathetic, convenient and pleasant surroundings for people when they pay their last respects to their loved ones.”

She said it was important for the facility to be used by people of all faiths, and people of no faith. (Local Democracy Reporting Service)