A Family Guide to Peterborough Crematorium

A special car called a hearse will arrive at your house. You will travel in a car behind the hearse, either in a funeral car, a taxi or your family car.

The cars will be driven by very smart looking people called funeral conductors. The car at the front of the funeral procession is called a hearse and this carries the coffin.

You will follow the hearse to the crematorium where the cars will park under the archway. You will get out of your car and wait to follow the coffin inside.

The coffin will be lifted out of the hearse by a group of people called Pallbearers, sometimes family members help with this. The coffin will be carried to the front of the chapel and placed on a special stand called a Catafalque, this has curtains around it which may or not be open for some or all of the service.

The person leading the service is called a celebrant or minister and they stand at the front of the room behind a lectern.

You will sit on one of the wooden benches called pews, usually near the front. The service will last about half an hour, there might be music to listen to or songs to sing. There might be poems read and a story about the person who has died. The celebrant or minister might pray. You can ask your family what they have decided to include in the special service you are going to.

Towards the end of the service the curtain around the coffin might close.

Sometimes they stay open for you to walk past the coffin as you leave. When the service ends you will go out through the door to the rear of the chapel.

You will walk outside to where the flowers or special reminders that were on the coffin are put for you and your family to look at before you travel home.