Burials and cemeteries

Cemeteries

We manage seven cemeteries in North Herts.

For opening times, location details, visitor access and rules and regulations for each cemetery, see the pages below:

• Baldock Cemetery
• Hitchin Cemetery
• Letchworth – Icknield Way
• Letchworth – Wilbury Hills
• Knebworth Cemetery
• Royston – Melbourn Road
• Royston – Stamford Avenue

The Burials Team liaise with Funeral Directors, Stonemasons and members of the public on a daily basis. Our staff offer advice on all aspects of interments and can answer any queries you have regarding our cemeteries.

Arrange a burial or interment of cremated remains

We take bookings for interments, process grave grant transfers and memorial permit applications, administer deeds and maintain up-to-date records. If you wish to speak to us about any aspect of burials and interments, please call us on 01462 474219 or 01462 474000.

We have a Service Level Agreement (SLA) in place that sets out how we communicate and liaise with Funeral Directors and Stonemasons. This is available to view at the bottom of this page.

Only funeral directors are able to book full burials. Family members or friends can make a provisional booking for cremated remains directly with us. Applications for interments of cremated remains are often made to us by Funeral Directors as they can help a deceased person's family/friends make the necessary arrangements.

You can make a provisional booking for an interment online:

If you wish to make a booking for a Saturday interment up to 11am (the interment fee will be doubled for a weekend interment) or to book one of the Cemetery Chapels for a service prior to the interment, contact the Burials Team directly to make the booking on 01462 474219 or 01462 474000, as these options are not bookable online.

Once the provisional booking has been submitted, you will receive a payment request by email to make an online payment. You will also need to complete the Interment Form (below) and email it to burials@north-herts.gov.uk together with a copy of the Burial or Cremation Certificate. We will also require the original Interment Form and Burial or Cremation Certificate to be sent to us by post to the Nottingham address found at the top of the form. 

Interment options

We offer a wide range of interment options at Wilbury Hills Cemetery including Woodland and Meadow burial areas and a cremated remains section, as well as entombment in the Mausoleum. Burials and interment of cremated remains are available in our other cemeteries, subject to availability, so please see the individual cemetery pages or contact us.

If you have any special requirements, such as cultural or religious customs, please contact us to discuss your requirements.

Pre-purchasing the exclusive right of burial for a grave space

Burial plots at Wilbury Hills Cemetery in Letchworth and Knebworth Cemetery, can be pre-purchased for future interment. We allocate the grave spaces on a "next available plot" basis, however, we may consider requests for a specific location if applicable. Deeds granting the Exclusive Right of Burial are issued for a period of 50 years and may be renewed up to a maximum of 50 years.

If you are thinking of pre-purchasing a plot, please contact the burials team and complete the Pre-Purchase form below.

Memorials

Due to the layout of some sections at St John’s Hitchin, Wilbury Hills Letchworth, and Icknield Way Letchworth, memorials may be erected on the head or foot of graves. If you have any queries about memorials or floral tributes, or have a specific wish about the position of a memorial, please contact the burials team. You are not permitted to install a memorial on a grave space without an approved Memorial Permit application, which is applied for by your Stonemason at the time of instruction.

Transferring the Exclusive Right of Burial

There are many different circumstances that may affect the transferring of the Exclusive Right of Burial and to ensure you complete and provide the correct information for the transfer, please contact the burials team so that we may advise you. 

Fees and charges

Fees and Charges for all our cemeteries can be found in the list of attachments below. These fees include charges for plot purchase, interments, memorials, undertaking a grave grant transfer, booking a chapel, inscriptions in the Book of Remembrance and genealogy enquiries. These fees are reviewed each year and the new fee structure applies from 1 April every year.

Useful contacts

For help, information and advice after someone has died: 

Attachments