I don't! Northamptonshire crematorium scrapped as wedding venue after holding just ONE ceremony

Kettering’s crematorium was scrapped as a wedding venue after holding just ONE ceremony in three years.

From June 2018 happy couples could officially get married at the Warren Hill site after the now-defunct Kettering Borough Council applied for a licence to hold services there.

They raised eyebrows when they said it was an ‘ideal’ wedding venue, with brides and grooms able to walk down the aisle in the Edgar Newman Chapel or at a new outdoor pavilion if the weather was good.

This month a Freedom of Information request by the Chron’s sister title Northants Telegraph revealed just one service there since its launch – and when contacted for comment North Northamptonshire Council admitted they did not renew the licence in 2021 because usage had been so low.

Labour’s Clark Mitchell, who was an opposition councillor when Kettering Borough Council made the move, said: “Why would you want to get married in a crematorium?

“It was a ridiculous idea and it was doomed to fail.

“I don’t know why they thought it was a good idea in the first place.”

When the move was first announced some said they felt it was ‘disrespectful’ and ‘creepy’ while others insisted it was no different to getting wed at a church.

Kettering Borough Council promised weddings and funerals would not be held on the same day at the site, which incorporates the crematorium, woodland area and burial grounds.

Announcing the plan Cllr Ian Jelley, who was the council’s portfolio holder for strategic delivery, had said: “This is a great idea to improve the services we provide for local people, to make even better use of one of our best assets and to earn additional income for the council tax payers of the borough.”

This newspaper can reveal the venue made a measly £325 in income from bookings.

Joelene and Sean Lawrence married there in June 2019, the only couple to do so. Their big day was filmed as part of UKTV’s ‘Wedding Fixer’ show.

Weddings were restricted in 2020 and 2021 because of the Covid pandemic. It’s not known if any at Warren Hill were cancelled because of lockdown restrictions.

Hiring Warren Hill for a wedding was priced at £850. Marketing material, which is still available online, said the price had been dropped to £595 as part of an offer.

The total spent on the project and marketing of the venue is also not known.

A North Northamptonshire Council spokesman was not aware of any plans to renew the licence at a later date.

Cllr David Brackenbury, the council’s executive member for growth and regeneration, said: “The aim of using the facility was to provide a reasonably priced, quality venue for weddings.

"There were no significant costs to providing this service as all of the facilities were already available. To host weddings it was only necessary for a minor rearrangement of the chapel.

“Covid-19 and associated restrictions heavily impacted the service and all marketing of the venue was paused. As the venue had not been used the licence was not renewed in 2021.”