Arranging a cremation

Services at Chelmsford Crematorium can be religious, non-religious or humanist, or you may choose not to have a service at all. You can check our fees and charges for the cost of each service.

Services are held in one of two chapels. The North Chapel has 30 seats, or the South Chapel which has 100 seats.

There is standing room in the Foyer for:

• 8 people in the North Chapel
• 25 people in the South Chapel

You can check the availability of the chapels by looking at the calendar of services. You will also need to check the availability of your funeral director.

Your funeral director will guide you through options for the service, including choosing music and visual tributes, and broadcasting and recording the service. They will also tell you the timescales for ordering these options.

We can play recorded music in both chapels using the Obitus Music System. You can view your choices on a library of available tracks online (you will need the password of "chelmsford").

If your choice is not already in the library, your funeral director can request commercially available music to be added. You can also ask for a recording you have personally created to be added, such as a song or reading.

Additionally, both chapels have an electric organ. Your funeral director will need to provide the organist for your service.

We can broadcast a funeral service online using the Obitus System. You can speak to your funeral director and request this, and they will be able to arrange this for you.

There is a single camera placed discreetly at the back of each chapel, which we can use to:

• webcast the service live
• webcast the service live and send as a download (up to 28 days afterwards)
• record the service onto DVD, Blu-Ray or USB

If you are webcasting the service, your funeral director will provide login details for your viewers. You can also view the broadcast for up to 28 days afterwards, although it can take up to two working days to become available.

You will have to pay an additional fee to arrange webcasting and recording. 

After the service, you will be able to visit the floral tribute area.

We collect all floral tributes each Monday morning. This includes floral tributes from all services which have taken place in the previous week. If you want to collect a tribute, you need to do so before closing time on Sunday.

The Statutory and Service and Crematorium Details form will ask you to consider what you would like to happen to the cremated remains after the cremation.

When you complete and sign these forms, you become the legal applicant for the cremated remains. 

You can ask us to:

• store the cremated remains at the Crematorium for up to one month after the cremation. After this time, you must contact us to tell us what you plan to do with the cremated remains. If we don’t hear from you, we will contact you for a decision
• prepare the cremated remains ready for you or your funeral director to collect
• scatter or inter the cremated remains in the current designated areas of the Garden of Remembrance. You can’t place a memorial or marker with the cremated remains because it is an unmarked area
• inter the cremated remains in the Garden of Remembrance, with a memorial
• inter the cremated remains in a plot in the lawn section of the Cemetery
• store the cremated remains in the columbarium

You can visit the crematorium to see what options there are for cremated remains.

Find out what you need to do to collect cremated remains.

You can arrange for us to scatter or inter the cremated remains. If you would like to be present, you will need to contact us and book an appointment.

Or, we can carry it out on your behalf if you don't want to be present. We may ask you to confirm this in writing to us.

You can arrange a funeral yourself, but you will have to carry out the duties that funeral directors perform. This includes storing and transporting the body, and completing the paperwork.

If you want to arrange a funeral yourself, you should contact us for advice.