bereavement

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Bereavement Services

Burial, cremation & memorials

Bereavement Services provides a personal, caring and dignified service to anyone that has suffered bereavement. We understand the additional pressures that you will be facing when you need to arrange a funeral, either for a family member or a close friend. We are committed to provide all the support and guidance you need, together with confidential and impartial advice on how to organise a personal and appropriate funeral. We will also do our best to meet any specific requirements that you may have.

Ceremonies for all religious, non-religious and cultural traditions are available at either woodvale crematorium or seven, well maintained, cemeteries across the city with traditional, lawn and woodland graves available.

We set ourselves very high standards and have been awarded the Government's Charter Mark for excellence in the provision of a public service on five consecutive occasions. In 2008 we achieved the Government's Customer Service Excellence standard. It has been nationally recognised for the development of its woodland burial scheme, and in the Good Funeral Guide 2000, Woodvale was awarded the Best Crematorium in the South of England.

Bereavement services also provides:

• information on what to do when a death occurs
• details about how to register a death
• advice on coping with bereavement 
• contact details of organisations to help the bereaved
• details about civil funerals
• a list of pre-recorded music [MS Excel 2.44mb] available for playing at funeral services (updated January 2009)
• a public mortuary
• a supporting service to HM Coroner for the City of Brighton & Hove
• guidance on self-help funerals [MS Word 210kb] 
• information about burials in private land [MS Word 176kb]         
• section 46 of the Public Health Act 1984 welfare funerals                     
• a genealogy research service
• a table of our current charges [pdf 175kb]
• a copy of our current service delivery plan [MS Word 1.06mb]
• the latest edition of Woodvale News [MS Word 540kb]

All personal visits or postal enquiries may be made by contacting Bereavement Services.

Kindly note that the Downs Crematorium and the Brighton & Preston Cemetery, both located in Brighton, are owned and managed by Dignity Funerals Ltd, a Private Company, and have no connection with Brighton & Hove City Council.