Barham Crematorium

Autumn mornings are always special at Barham Crematorium.

Another week done over at our new crematorium build at Bishopbriggs complete!

Week 38 of our crematorium build at Bishopbriggs this week and it's exciting to see how quickly the development is now taking shape.

During the period of week 38 the below works have been carried out:

• Milestone date achieved of 10th September 24 to accommodate early access to Clients specialist Cremator Contractor.
• Complete copes to fire pond Final coat paint applied to base and walls.
• Floor screed to main building area now complete.
• Mechanical & Electrical works ongoing.
• Works to new internal footpaths underway, footpath to memorial garden ongoing.
• Continuation of external render
• Hydro seeding around new suds pond complete
• Excavation for new service tracks commenced.
• Continuation of accessible highways works ahead of planned road closure

We look forward to bringing you an update next week!

We’re incredibly proud to share that our Aylesbury Vale site has been recognised by the Federation of Burial & Cremation Authorities (FBCA) for providing an exceptional level of service 🙌

Following a comprehensive inspection in July 2024, FBCA inspector Gordon Hull awarded us 100% in areas such as administration, ceremony facilities, and service and staff. No recommendations were needed, highlighting our commitment to putting people at the heart of everything we do.

A massive thank you to our dedicated team for making this possible! 👏

Read more here: https://ow.ly/uhA050Tw1BH

We believe in honouring the memories of your loved ones by also taking care of the world they cherished. Purchase a memorial at any of our locations before 6 October, and we will donate £100 to the World Land Trust.

Your loved one’s memory will not only be preserved in a peaceful place but will also help protect the planet they cared about.

Discover how you can create a lasting memory here: https://ow.ly/TQH850Tw2cY

We were honoured to be invited by Child Bereavement UK to their London offices to mark an important milestone—30 years of helping families navigate the devastating loss of a child.

During the visit, our Brand Ambassador Alan Jose met with Manish Peshawaria, Corporate Partnerships Officer, and Valerie Henry, a Bereavement Support Practitioner. Valerie gave a tour of the family room, where parents and children receive counseling from highly trained professionals. A unique feature of the room is the "memory tree," where messages from the bereaved can be shared. This thoughtful concept echoes our Letters to Heaven Post Boxes, a service that one of CBUK's families recently found incredibly valuable for their grieving son.

We look forward to welcoming the CBUK team to our Westerleigh site soon to share best practices in bereavement care, a mission closely aligned with CBUK’s work and our own.

Our grounds are always a special place for people to reflect and remember their loved one. It's that time of the year when our establish trees are displaying truly amazing colours.

Week 36 of our crematorium build at Bishopbriggs last week, only 10 more weeks to go till completion and our Westerleigh style of building is definitely starting to come through.

During the period of week 36 the below works have been carried out:

• Complete copes to fire pond
• Installation of louvres to rear elevation
• Gas membrane installation, verification
• Commencement of screed duct installation to Chapel area
• Commence floor insulation and screed works
• Mechanical & Electrical works ongoing.
• Works to new internal footpaths underway, footpath to memorial garden ongoing.
• Continuation of external render
• Shaping of landscaped areas including surface water runoff ditch
• Completion of Monoblock laying to the car park and tactile paving
• Continuation of accessible highways works ahead of planned road closure

We look forward to bringing you an update next week!

Between Monday 9th September and Sunday 6th October, we’re offering you the chance to be a part of something special when you make a memorial purchase in honour of a loved one. This month for every memorial purchase made we will donate £100 to World Land Trust (WLT) which will fund an acre of land in memory of your loved one.

Your purchase will help protect one acre of vital habitat for wildlife—providing a fitting tribute and making a tangible difference.

To learn more about the partnership, watch our Head of Grounds, Giles Palmer, sit down with Notts TV and discuss how buying a memorial could help the planet.

Watch here: https://youtu.be/uAOI6gu7eY8

Between Monday 9th September and Sunday 6th October, we’re offering you the chance to be a part of something special when you make a memorial purchase in honour of a loved one. This month for every memorial purchase made we will donate £100 to World Land Trust (WLT) which will fund an acre of land in memory of your loved one.

Your purchase will help protect one acre of vital habitat for wildlife—providing a fitting tribute and making a tangible difference.

Find out more here: https://ow.ly/wRJH50To4fb

Tonight’s Good Funeral Awards by Association of Green Funeral Directors will decide the winner of The Crematorium of the Year award.

We’re wishing three Westerleigh Group finalists in this category - Gedling Crematorium, Great Glen Crematorium, West Berkshire Crematorium, the best of luck! 🤞

We are bringing cutting-edge technology to our living memorial and tree collection! 🌳🌿

Our grounds team leaders have completed training in TreeKeeper software, allowing us to accurately track and maintain the health of all our beautiful trees across all sites. This is a significant step towards safeguarding our cherished greenery for generations to come.

Read more here: https://ow.ly/IlmG50TlYwz

We are thrilled to announce that our site at Aylesbury Vale has been recognised for its commitment to putting people at the heart of everything it does. In a recent inspection by the FBCA, they scored 100% in administration, ceremony facilities, and service and staff.

We are so proud of our team for providing exceptional service and care to the families they support.

Our Arun Crematorium site recently hosted a special dedication service last week one year since its opening in August 2023. It is one of the most environmentally friendly crematoriums in the country, serving the communities in and around Arundel, Bognor Regis, Littlehampton, Selsey and Worthing.

The service was a lovely way to dedicate the new crematorium to the community in the presence of funeral directors, celebrants and senior members of the bereavement industry.

Thank you to everyone who attended and joined us in dedicating Arun Crematorium to the local community.

Read more about the day here: https://ow.ly/WcPf50Tl630

It is always special when we have horses and carriage grace our grounds. Thanks to Woollard & Kent Funeral Services for their fantastic professionalism and dedication as always.

Such a privilege to be associated with World Land Trust and support minimising impact on the environment.

Special collaboration with World Land Trust alert!

Between 9 September and 6 October, every memorial purchased will trigger a £100 donation from Westerleigh Group to the Trust’s Buy an Acre programme, protecting some of the world’s most threatened habitats.

This is more than a memorial; it’s a joint commitment to preserve the memories of a loved one and the future of our planet. Together, we can make a difference.

Read more here: https://ow.ly/pGmF50TaxTr

Special collaboration with World Land Trust alert!

Between 9 September and 6 October, every memorial purchased will trigger a £100 donation from Westerleigh Group to the Trust’s Buy an Acre programme, protecting some of the world’s most threatened habitats.

This is more than a memorial; it’s a joint commitment to preserve the memories of a loved one and the future of our planet. Together, we can make a difference.

Read more here: https://ow.ly/CV4g50Taygy

Today is Grief Awareness Day, a day to acknowledge and honour the complex emotions that come with loss.

John Adam's podcast Death: A Changing Industry, is a brilliant resource dedicated to exploring the evolving landscape of death, dying, bereavement and all the emotions that come with grief.

Are We Failing Students by Avoiding the Topic of Death? With Clare Shaw Clare Shaw joins us to discuss the challenges of talking about death, especially with children, revealing more about the inspiration behind her latest book a...

Today, our Head of Quality and Standards, Jason King delivered a presentation on behalf of Westerleigh Group to some 150 industry professionals consisting of funeral directors, medical referees and local authorities in a stakeholder meeting hosted by the Ministry of Justice about the upcoming Statutory Medical Examiner Scheme for England and Wales.

Jason explained that the key to our readiness for the reform was having an internal working party to design and deliver a robust communications plan. This assured that our new paperwork was ready with time to spare, our colleagues had time to get familiar with upcoming changes and our Funeral Directors and other industry partners were being supported with the transition onto the new system.

Anyone with outstanding questions about the upcoming reform is invited to refer to our summary document or speak to our colleagues at Westerleigh Group crematoria.

Week 32 of our crematorium build at Bishopbriggs and things are starting to take shape up in Scotland.

During the period of week 32 the below works have been carried out:

- Works to roof structure including slate, single-ply membrane
- New suds pond and fire pond liner complete, brickwork walls commence next week.
- Permeable paving works commence.
- Internal works to cremator room, loft area, and main chapel area.
- Stonework to the gable walls is complete and we're continuing with the main entrance area.
- First fix electrical works commence.
- Kerbing to new internal footpaths is underway.

We look forward to bringing you another update soon!

It is always with great sadness that we had to take the difficult decision to fell one of our established tree last week. Our trees play a very important part for families who have a loved one resting within our grounds and are key landmarks. As such we took the decision to add to our unique collection of carvings. We appreciate this will be an emotive situation for families with relatives resting by this tree. Thanks to the amazing craft of our tree surgeon Bruck Tree Surgery, this tree with its beautiful new identity will remain in place as a focal point for families.

We are delighted to announce that 3 out of our 4 Crematorium of the Year nominees have advanced to the finals. Huge congratulations to Great Glen Crematorium, Gedling Crematorium, and West Berkshire Crematorium for this outstanding achievement ⭐🏆

Our teams consistently strive to deliver exceptional care in beautiful environments, allowing families to grieve, and honour their loved ones in a unique personal way every day.

Congratulations to all of the other nominees and finalists, we feel especially honoured to be recognised by other professionals in the bereavement industry who have taken the time to acknowledge and support our efforts.

Thank you to everyone who attended our Sedgemoor Crematorium Thanksgiving service last week to commemorate 10 years of service to our bereaved community.

Since their opening in 2013 they have managed to serve over 12,000 families thanks to the wonderful care and commitment from the team.

It was a pleasure to have the service led by local celebrants Emma Britton, Beverley Symonds, Reverend Will Lane and music from talented singers The Vixens. Overall, it was a wonderful day and we thank everyone for attending.

To mark Samaritans Awareness Day, we are fostering the spirit of the Samaritans by encouraging our colleagues to start conversations about Mental Health in what we have called 'Sip and Support' sessions. ☕ These discussions will provide an opportunity for our teams to open up, actively listen and offer their support for one another.

We are even taking Sip and Support online with a virtual drop-in session for colleagues to come together from across the business and have these conversations over Teams, supported by our Mental Health First Aiders.

It's resources like this that are so important to our staff and also the families in which we serve so that we can enter into those conversations with the right skills and understanding.

&Development

Ploughing into week 29 today, here are the updates from last week on our new Bishopbriggs Crematorium in Glasgow.

• Continued with works to roof structure and blockwork internal & external.
• Re-graded area between overflow car park and new suds pond.
• Installed new Klargester tank
• Excavate fire pond and place liner.
• Continued with external stonework to main entrance
• Poured new concrete base for substation.
• Commenced works to new roof insulation/membrane.

As some of you may be aware there is currently an ongoing global incident that is causing one of the largest IT outages in history. At this point, it has been identified that a specific cybersecurity product is responsible for the widespread outage and is limited to companies using one of its specific products.

Please rest assured that Westerleigh and Distinct do not use the affected product and currently are operating as normal.

For reassurance, our media partner Obitus does not use any of the affected products and is not currently impacted by this outage, however, there could be an indirect impact if services, or third parties that Obitus work with are affected.

We are thrilled to announce that four incredible charities have received generous donations from Cromer Crematorium!

East Anglia's Children's Hospices - EACH, Nelson's Journey, Little Lifts and Hillside Animal Sanctuary have each been given funds to support their amazing work in the local community. This money has come from their metal recycling scheme and is part of our ongoing commitment to making a positive difference.

Read more here: https://ow.ly/r7GI50SCp63

We're excited to announce that after the success of our West Berkshire site winning Best Crematorium at the AGFD Good Funeral Awards last year, we've continued with our success and have received 4 nominations for the 2024 awards!

We want to congratulate, Great Glen Crematorium, Gedling Crematorium, West Berkshire Crematorium and Babworth Crematorium for this achievement and wish them all the best of luck for the next round. Our sites and staff work so hard all year round so this is a brilliant recognition for them all.

The finalists will be revealed later this month! 🤞

We're thrilled to announce that after a recent inspection from the Federation of Burial & Cremation Authorities (FBCA) our Stirlingshire crematorium site has achieved top marks for their staff and service!

This is a fantastic result to have received and we are so proud of the hard work and dedication that has been recognised in areas like administration, ceremony facilities, grounds, and service.

Read more here: https://ow.ly/913650SCmNq

We had the pleasure of hosting the Western Counties Area Federation of the National Association of Funeral Directors yesterday at our Sedgemeoor Crematorium. It was an honour to host this meeting and to be working with our NAFD members.

It's been over a month since the NFE, but we wanted to thank everyone who participated in our conversation during the 3-day event. It was fantastic to speak with so many industry colleagues and organisations and if it weren't for this we wouldn't have had the chance to donate a total of £15,000 across 20 charities of your choice.

Our nominated charities this year who are receiving the donations are the Child Funeral Charity, Group B Strep Support (GBSS), Birmingham Dogs Home, Cancer Research UK, RAF Benevolent Fund, Children's Air Ambulance, Alex TLC, Cruse Bereavement Support, St Nicholas Hospice Care, Poppyscotland, Royal British Legion, Children's Liver Disease Foundation, Coffin Club In Margarets Memory CIC, Jasmine's Legacy of Dreams, Survivors of Bereavement by Su***de - SOBS, YoungMinds, Child Bereavement UK, 2wish and Air Ambulances UK. We hope these donations will help to make a difference across a wide range of communities across the UK.

We look forward to seeing you all again for

Read more about our donations here: https://ow.ly/NuFL50SyLqp

Week 26 Bishopbriggs Crematorium update from last week with Luddon Construction Limited.

Things are powering on for our new Glasgow site with continued work on the roof structure and the internal/external blockwork. We've now completed the excavation and shaping of our large pond, all steelwork frameworks are also complete as well as the kerbing to the overflow car park.

We are still continuing with the external stonework of the main entrance and will soon be commencing work on a new gas tank base.

Last week we attended the 14th Annual West & Coe Annual Golf Charity Competition, hosted at The Langdon Hills Golf Club in South Essex.

This is always a tremendous event for not only Funeral Directors and industry professionals but also as an opportunity to support and raise money for local charities. This year's event raised an impressive £33.000 for St. Luke's Hospice, Basildon and Changing Pathways. Both these charities play a pivotal role in the community providing safe accommodation for adult women and children experiencing domestic abuse and helping children with learning difficulties to integrate into mainstream schooling.

We fielded two teams, as has been the case since 2013, and with the combined expertise of our players finished in a very respectable mid-table position - Well done to everyone involved and we look forward to the following year!

Today we recognise National Bereaved Parents Day to raise awareness of all parents who have lost a child of any age.

We honour and remember the precious lives that are no longer with us and extend our deepest sympathies to their families. If you know someone who has lost a child, reach out with a kind word or a hug. Your support can make a world of difference.

Our grounds are a welcoming place to reflect and offer a quiet moment of peace for those wanting to honour their loved ones today.

Today we are remembering fathers and father figures and our thoughts are with everyone who is missing theirs.

Join us this weekend on Saturday 15th June for our Open Day between 10am - 2pm.

We will be offering the chance to take a tour of the crematorium, meet our team, enjoy the grounds and find out how we serve the community.

Everyone is welcome, no booking is necessary. We look forward to welcoming you!

Find out more: https://ow.ly/Xomf50RZXJO

Today marks the 80th anniversary of D-Day, a day that changed the course of history. Let's take a moment to honour and remember the brave soldiers who fought and sacrificed for our freedom. Their courage will never be forgotten.

Join us on Saturday 15th June for our Open Day between 10am - 2pm.

We will be offering the chance to take a tour of the crematorium, meet our team, enjoy the grounds and find out how we serve the community.

Everyone is welcome, no booking is necessary. We look forward to welcoming you!

Find out more: https://ow.ly/Xomf50RZXJO