Introduction

We are often requested to give information about funerals and their arrangement. This can be difficult because many correspondents know little about funerals and do not make it clear whether they intend to use a funeral director or not. Other requests are about making funerals less formal and more a celebration of the life of the deceased, or about being more natural and "green".

In response to these requests, the enclosed notes set out the routine followed by a funeral director using our services, to which matters of interest to all the bereaved are added. This, it is hoped, will help the bereaved understand their rights and complete as little or as much of the funeral arrangements as they wish, even to carrying out the funeral without a funeral director.

The completion of these notes is intended to widen choice and help the bereaved and others obtain a satisfying funeral. Wetheral Parish Council does not wish to promote any particular type of arrangement or choice and it is hoped that these notes do not imply this. Wetheral Parish Council does not provide a funeral directing service and cannot collect bodies and convey them to the cemetery that it operates.

Funerals can be arranged from anywhere in the Country without difficulty, although the distance can increase costs. If you use a funeral director, you can choose one from your locality or alternatively, contact one in Carlisle.

Some funeral directors are members of National Association of Funeral Directors (N.A.F.D.) and have a Code of Practice. Under this code, they should offer you a price list, at your request.

Initially, you need to arrange the funeral by telephone:- 

The number is 01228 561687 and you can contact us during Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday 9.00 a.m. - 1.30 p.m. 

N.B. An answer machine is in operation outside these times. If the call is urgent or at the weekend there will be a telephone number to contact the Chair of Cemeteries Committee. 

Fees, Payments and Sums fixed and settled under Section 34 of the Burial Act 1852, Local Government Act 1972 - Schedule 26 and the Cemeteries Orders Act 1977. 

The fees, payments and sums set out in the leaflet to the right apply where the person is to be interred or in respect of whom the right is granted is, or immediately before his death was, an inhabitant or parishioner of the Parish of Wetheral or, in the case of a still-born child, where the parents (or one of them) are, or at the time of the interment were, such inhabitants or parishioners. The Parish Council shall however, have discretion to waive this restriction where considered appropriate.