Eden’s first and only crematorium has been opened by a South Cumbrian family bringing state-of-the-art funeral facilities to the area.
The Eden Valley Crematorium at Temple Sowerby includes an 160-seat chapel — with additional standing room — cremation facilities, offices and a large car park.
The crematorium will be run by the Fishwick family, who own several sites across South Cumbria, although services will be run by independent funeral directors.
Located on the Winderwath Estate, the 1.1-hectare site was developed from a group of disused farm buildings which were renovated and connected with purpose-built facilities.
John Fishwick started the funeral directors in 1967 when he made a career move from joinery.
His wife Valerie and daughters Jayne Aynsley and Kate Fishwick Cook are also active directors of the company.
Originally based in Milnthorpe, the business expanded over the years with sites in Kirkby Lonsdale, Kendal and Bowness-on-Windermere.
Their main site also relocated to Beetham, which was the inspiration for the new Temple Sowerby operation.
Jayne said: “Following the success and great feedback after opening Beetham Hall Crematorium and seeing that there was no crematoria between Beetham Hall and Carlisle, we felt that it would be beneficial to give the families in Eden Valley the choice to use a similar state-of-the-art facility in their area and reduce travelling time.
“Fishwicks Ltd is a family-run business which has been involved in the funeral industry for over 55 years.
“The opening of our initial crematoria was done so we could do things differently and from a funeral director’s perspective, thinking of what families would want — lovely location, nice environment, longer time between services.
“Our ethos is to help families at a difficult time in the best way possible.”
Three services will run a day with an hour-and-a-half between the 30-minute slots, allowing families time to take proceedings at their own pace
The chapel comes fitted with a streaming service for music with provision for digital pictures and videos to also be shown.
A spokesman for Appleby’s Glyn Jones Funeral Directors, said: “It’ll make a big difference for us having a local crematorium.
“From Appleby our nearest crematoria are Carlisle, Beetham or Darlington so its cutting travel time for families which makes life a lot easier for them.
“We’d like to congratulate the Fishwicks on opening the site and wish them the best.”
