New Gardens Refresh City’s Crematorium Grounds

The gardens in the grounds of the city’s Crematorium at the Kelvin Grove Cemetery are being refreshed, with attractive flower-filled ‘wagon wheel’ circles installed.

“The new professionally landscaped garden design provides a more fitting setting for those gathering to remember the lives of those who have passed on,” says Brian Way, leisure assets officer. “They also give people more options for creating a lasting tribute to their loved ones.”

Installing the first stage of the new circular Garden Kerb plots is complete. The next stage will include a low memorial wall and begins in spring. The changes will enhance the Crematorium and give people more options for memorialising their loved ones including:

• Small granite or bronze plaques in the new wagon wheel area.

• Plaque-only or burial of ash options.

• Scattering ashes in designated gardens and tree areas.

• Burying ashes in an existing fully-occupied burial plot.

Brian says that previously, some people opting to scatter loved ones ashes did so in the rose gardens immediately outside the Crematorium. The soil was carefully removed, stored and was used to fill sections of the new ‘wagon wheel’ gardens. The same process will be followed during stage two when another couple of rose gardens will be replaced.

Kelvin Grove Cemetery is situated on 36 hectares of park-like surroundings in James Line off Napier Road. It opened in 1927, the Crematorium and Chapel were added in 1954. The cemetery provides services for around 180 burials and 400 cremations each year.

The city’s other cemeteries are Terrace End, which is now closed for sale of new plots, although people with existing family plots may still be buried there, and the Ashhurst Cemetery. Recently, responsibility for the former Bunnythorpe Trust Cemetery was transferred to Palmerston North City Council.

ends

© Scoop Media