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The prolonged negotiations between the Battersea Metropolitan
Borough Council, the Sutton and Cheam Borough Council and the Urban
District Councils of Carshalton and Merton & Morden came to fruition on
the 5th July, 1956, when the North-East Surrey Crematorium Board Act,
1956, received the Royal Assent. The Appointed Day was the 1st October,
1956.
The Act constituted the Joint Board comprising representatives of the
four Authorities and authorised the Board to provide and maintain a
Crematorium. In pursuance of the agreement previously reached between
the Authorities, the Board acquired two pieces of land forming part of the
Battersea Council's cemetery situate at Morden and have initiated the
necessary procedure for the conversion of the existing Chapel thereon into
a Crematorium.
The Council's mortuary in Mill Lane which is fully equipped for postmortem
examination, received 127 bodies in 1956 on all of which autopsies
were performed. Of the total, 45 were admitted from other districts.
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