Work on new £6.3m Lea Fields Crematorium is on schedule

Work on a ‘much-needed’, £6.3 million crematorium for the Gainsborough area, is well under way, reports West Lindsey District Council.
Officers from West Lindsey District Council and Coun Jeff Summers at the crematorium site.Officers from West Lindsey District Council and Coun Jeff Summers at the crematorium site.
Officers from West Lindsey District Council and Coun Jeff Summers at the crematorium site.

A team of council officers and Coun Jeff Summers visited the site, which is on Gainsborough Road between the villages of Lea and Knaith.

They heard that work is running on schedule, and that the crematorium should be open in January, 2020.

Coun Summers said: “On entering the site, a feeling of excitement came over me because we have had an ambition to build a crematorium for several years.

“This is a much-needed facility for our local community, so it’s good to see the building rising from the earth and our ambition realised.”

Lea Fields Crematorium, which has been welcomed by local funeral directors, is the first development of its kind in the district.

The council took the decision to create it after statistics showed that 75 per cent of funerals are now cremations, with reports of people having to wait for up to four weeks.

A state-of-the-art facility, Lea Fields will boast a modern design, a chapel with 120 seats, a remembrance court and a layout of memorial gardens.

The design and the materials used have been chosen to complement the rural nature of the site. All the building work is being carried out by contractors Wilmott Dixon.

Coun Summers added: “The steel structure is almost complete, and the grassed area is sown.

“On the hillside beyond, the memorial gardens are coming together, complete with beautiful views of the woodland and distant vistas across Nottinghamshire. This will be a fabulous crematorium on a fantastic site.”

Stuart Kerr, director of Wilmott Dixon, said: “We are proud to be working with the council on this crematorium.

“As part of our work, we will be investing more than £450,000 in the Gainsborough area through a variety of community initiatives, such as careers workshops with local young people and work-experience opportunities.”