Memoria South Oxford Crematorium & Memorial Park Reviews 

Reply from Memoria South Oxford Crematorium & Memorial Park

Feb 10, 2019

Hi,

Thank you for your review, your feedback is very welcome and I'm sorry you feel concerned about the facility so I thought I'd explain the reasons why we do things slightly differently than perhaps people have been used to seeing at other crematoria over the years.

We feel those same reasons are why this facility has been voted Crematorium of the Year by the Good Funeral Guide and also why 7 of the top 10 crematoria in the country are operated by Memoria.

Our Crematorium seats over 100 in the chapel and has room for over 200 in the building, both of these figures are nearly double what the average number of attendees are at UK funeral service. We also provide over 100 parking spaces which at an average of 2.5 people sharing a vehicle to a funeral is also ample. In addition it is worth noting that parking is restricted itself by planning regulations which simply do not allow new crematoria to build vast amounts of parking in order to facilitate the less than 2% of funeral services that exceed an attendance of over 250 people.

South Oxfordshire Memorial Park (unlike the vast majority of crematoria in the UK) has been deliberately designed to not have a waiting area. This is because we do not feel it is suitable or dignified to have a family who are holding a funeral service, interrupted by mourners from a following funeral service making their way into a waiting area, equally I am sure you will agree it is not comfortable for the family attending a service to feel like they are intruding on a service prior to the one they are attending.

Instead we brought in a new option, a different way of doing things and one which allows 1-hour service times, giving each and every family sole access to our crematorium during their service which allows each family to feel like they are not part of the tragic conveyor belt of grief which is often witnessed at some other crematoria. In those instances, families historically arrive at a crematorium to witness the previous service leaving and themselves leave only to walk into the following service waiting outside where they experience that awkward feeling of seeing vast amounts of unfamiliar faces at a time they are often overwhelmed with grief.

We display a sign at the entrance of our crematorium to instruct those attending services to not enter the grounds less than 10 minutes prior to the service in order to allow all users complete and uninterrupted privacy. In addition, if families feel they may require longer at the crematorium that the 1-hour service time allows we encourage them to take a double service time to ensure they do not feel either rushed themselves or as though they are intruding on another funeral service.

It is also worth mentioning that since we pioneered the idea of 1-hour service times in 2014, many other crematoria operators have followed suit to ensure only 1 service is on site at any given time, giving each family opportunity to have an uninterrupted service for their loved ones.

We are conscious that whilst this award winning approach is undoubtedly a better and more dignified way to conduct funerals, it may be a fairly new concept to people who have always followed the method mentioned above. To this end we are spreading the message as fast as we possibly can to funeral directors, in local media, social media and through events at our crematoria such as our annual crematorium open day which is open to all to attend and see the new technology and innovative approach to funeral services.

I hope this goes some way to explain the thought behind our decisions but if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Assuring you of our most courteous attention at all times.

Paul Reed

07543220797

Reply from Memoria South Oxford Crematorium & Memorial Park

Apr 30, 2018

Many thanks for your review, we welcome all feedback both good and bad and hopefully my response will be able to address your concerns which seems to be on 2 separate points, so I will answer each in turn.

South Oxfordshire Memorial Park (unlike the vast majority of crematoria in the UK) has been deliberately designed to not have a waiting area. This is because we do not feel it is suitable or dignified to have a family who are holding a funeral service, interrupted by mourners from a following funeral service making their way into a waiting area, equally I am sure you will agree it is not comfortable for the family attending a service to feel like they are intruding on a service prior to the one they are attending.

Instead we brought in a revolutionary new option (the first of its kind in the UK) which allows 1 hour service times, giving each and every family sole access to our crematorium during their service. We display a sign at the entrance of our crematorium to instruct those attending services to not enter the grounds less than 10 minutes prior to the service in order to allow all users complete and uninterrupted privacy. This in addition to our commitment to outstanding levels of service and facility has resulted in South Oxford Memorial Park & Crematorium being awarded the Good Funeral Guide Crematorium of the Year Award.

On the second point of hymns being unaccompanied during the service I have made due investigation into the matter and can confirm that in all cases the Funeral Director conducting the service is responsible to inform the crematorium of the music required for the service, to this end the I can also confirm that the information received by the crematorium had no indication of music for the hymns, indeed there was no indication of hymns to be sung at all. In addition once our team had identified the issue after the first hymn they spoke to the Minister conducting the service to ask if music would be preferred to accompany the hymns and were instructed they would not be required.

I hope this answers your concerns but if you have any further queries, please do not hesitate to contact me directly.

Paul Reed
Managing Executive
07543220797