Sirhowy Valley Crematorium offers bespoke memorial for music lovers

Sirhowy Valley Crematorium can now offer bespoke vinyl records featuring recordings and images of a loved one, each containing a small amount of their ashes. 

The site is part of Westerleigh Group, which is always looking for ways to help create unique and personal memorials.

A new partnership between And Vinyly and Westerleigh Group allows the crematorium to offer the bereaved the chance to have the ashes of a loved one pressed into a vinyl record, creating a unique bespoke memento.

Westerleigh Group is one of the UK’s largest independent owners and operators of crematoria and cemeteries, with 40 sites in England, Scotland, and Wales, all set within beautifully landscaped gardens of remembrance which provide pleasant, tranquil places for people to visit and reflect.

Options include making several 7” or 12” records for a similar price to a single vinyl, therefore enabling family members and friends to each have a lasting record of their loved one to treasure. 

The record can include a personal message, someone’s own soundtrack or just the sound of silence with the unmistakable background of the pops and crackles of a vinyl record.

Sirhowy Valley Crematorium Manager Jon Deacon said: “We are always looking to expand the range of memorial options available to the bereaved in order to give them the widest possible choice and help them to create uniquely personal memorials for their loved ones.

“What you receive is a real playable vinyl record containing around 18 minutes of audio on each side, along with a small amount of the ashes.

“And it is not only music that can form the soundtrack, many people choose to include recordings of special occasions or conversations with their loved one on the vinyl.

“The process enables people to design their own sleeve and label artwork too, if they wish, using templates provided by And Vinyly.”

And Vinyly was established in 2006 by Yorkshire-based music producer and music label owner Jason Leach, who had been reflecting on mortality in general but found himself focusing on it a little more after his mother began working at a funeral directors.

He said: “We have developed a unique additional process that enables us to press a small amount of a loved one’s ashes into real vinyl records, creating an audio-visual memento.

“The first step is the collation of the content. This can be collaborative and is, we have learned, often a cathartic experience, with friends and family contributing photographs and words, voicemails, answerphone messages and recordings of special times. 

“Our partnership with Westerleigh Group will enable us to serve even more bereaved and help them create beautifully bespoke vinyl records which can be kept at home, played and cherished for generations.”

Anyone who wants to find out more about And Vinyly records should visit: www.sirhowyvalleycrem.co.uk/ashes-in-vinyl