Direct cremation (unattended cremation)

A direct cremation is a cremation with no funeral service and no mourners at the crematorium, sometimes called an unattended cremation. The funeral director collects your loved one, cares for them until the cremation and returns the ashes, so the family can hold a memorial or gathering of their own, when and where they choose. We arrange direct cremations at a fixed £1,295, with a viewing at our chapel of rest for £150.

What is not possible

No one from the family attends the cremation. There is no service, no chapel booking and no mourners, and the crematorium sets the day within its own schedule. You can ask for a particular day and most crematoria will try, but you cannot choose the time. If being there matters, a cremation with a short attended service is a different arrangement, made by a local funeral director.

What the family still decides

You can still see your loved one first. A viewing is an hour with the coffin at the chapel of rest, for the immediate family, before the cremation. It takes place at the chapel of rest, not at the crematorium. A simple coffin suitable for cremation is part of the arrangement, and small personal items can go with your loved one, within the crematorium’s rules. The ashes come back in a container or an urn, and what happens to them, and when, is entirely the family’s choice.

How long it takes

The crematorium needs the application for cremation, the green form from the registrar and, if the coroner is involved, the coroner’s certificate. From the first call to the ashes coming back is usually seven to ten days when there is no coroner involved. Registering the death as soon as the medical examiner has cleared it is the one step that shortens it.

The goodbye, afterwards

Many families hold a memorial service weeks or months later, in a garden, a church or a front room, with everyone who could not have made a weekday morning at a crematorium.