Now! Then! Eliza Hawley inaugurates Sheffield’s new crematorium at the City Road Cemetery

24 April 1905: Eliza Hawley inaugurates Sheffield’s new crematorium at the City Road Cemetery

Sheffield’s Grade II-listed crematorium (Bilbo 2010/04/13).

Sheffield Daily Telegraph. 1905/04/24. First Cremation in Sheffield. Sheffield Daily Telegraph. Reproduction by kind permission of Chris Hobbs. Get it:

Excerpt

The new Corporation Crematorium at City Road Cemetery, Sheffield, was used for the first time yesterday, when the body of Mrs Eliza Hawley, of 14, Birkendale, Upperthorpe, was cremated. The event aroused great interest, and the chapel attached to the crematorium was crowded with people, who, however, saw little more than is possible at an ordinary funeral service. The body was enclosed in a shell of canary wood, which was placed on the catafalque, near the doors leading from the chapel to the cremation chamber. The Rev H.F. Greenwood conducted the service of the Church of England, and, as the committal sentences were being read, the coffin was drawn by mechanical means into the cremation chamber. There a heat of about 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit was employed, and the body was reduced to ashes in about an hour and a half. The cremation was success fully carried out, under the supervision of Mr J. Platts (cemetery superintendent), and others present in the chamber were Dr Reckless (Mrs Hawley’s medical attendant), Councillor Alfred Taylor (chairman of the Burial Grounds Sub-committee of the City Council), Councillor Wardley, Mr Gibson (representing the Town Clerk), and Mr C.M. Hadfield (architect). The ashes were deposited in an urn, which is to find a resting-place in the north arcade. The arrangements for the funeral were carried out by Messrs Joseph Tomlinson and Sons Ltd. Another cremation will take place tomorrow.

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To facilitate reading, the spelling and punctuation of elderly excerpts have generally been modernised, and distracting excision scars concealed. My selections, translations, and editions are copyright.

Abbreviations

Comment

Chris, as ever, is a mine of information. I for my part wonder why her estate didn’t go to her husband.

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Original

CITY AND SUBURBS.
FIRST CREMATION IN SHEFFIELD,
The new Corporation Crematorium at City Road Cemetery, Sheffield, was used for the first time yesterday, when the body of Mrs. Eliza Hawley, of 14, Birkendale, Upperthorpe, was cremated. The event aroused great interest, and the chapel attached to the crematorium was crowded with people, who, however, saw little more than is possible at an ordinary funeral service. The body was enclosed in a shell of canary wood, which was placed on the catafalque, near the doors leading from the chapel to the cremation chamber. The Rev. H. F. Greenwood conducted the service of the Church of England, and, as the committal sentences were being read, the coffin was drawn by mechanical means into the cremation chamber. There a heat of about 1,800 degrees Fahr. was employed, and the body was reduced to ashes in about an hour and a half. The cremation was success fully carried out, under the supervision of Mr. J. Platts (cemetery superintendent), and others present in the chamber were Dr. Reckless (Mrs. Hawley’s medical attendant), Councillor Alfred Taylor (chairman of the Burial Grounds Sub-committee of the City Council), Councillor Wardley, Mr. Gibson (representing the Town Clerk), and Mr. C. M. Hadfield (architect). The ashes were deposited in an urn, which is to find a resting-place in the north arcade. The arrangements for the funeral were carried out by Messrs. Joseph Tomlinson and Sons (Ltd.). Another cremation will take place tomorrow.

245 words.