Kent & Sussex Crematorium

Story

The Kent and Sussex Crematorium and Cemetery is a crematorium and cemetery located in Royal Tunbridge Wells in the county of Kent, England.BackgroundAs a quickly developing and popular Victorian era spa town, the town of Tunbridge Wells did not gain its first church until 1829, when the Decimus Burton designed Holy Trinity Church opened. The town gained its first cemetery, Woodbury Park Cemetery in 1849, laid out over and consecrated as Trinity Cemetery.However, as the town's expansion quickened, and with no additional land into which to expand the grounds, Woodbury Park proved to small. Although burials were continued to be allowed in family plots post 1873, the last burial took place there in 1934. It is now Grade II listed.HistoryAfter Tunbridge Wells town corporation had procured lands on the northern edge of Frant forest/southern edge of the town, the initially named Frant Forest Cemetery opened in 1873. It was laid out over an initial site by the town surveyor William Brentnall, who had originally been recruited to rebuild the drainage system around the town. Bretnall was later buried in the same grounds. The co-located crematorium was opened in 1959.