The Cheltenham Columbarium Wall, announced last year in partnership with Spirit of Sport UK Limited, will hand those with a passion for both Jump Racing and Cheltenham Racecourse the opportunity to make it their final resting place.
Spirit of Sport is an innovative expert in installing columbarium walls in famous sporting venues and the Home of Jump Racing is proud to be the first major racecourse to offer the service.
Dating back to Roman times, a Columbarium is a wall made up of individual spaces known as ‘niches’, into which urns are inserted containing the cremated ashes of loved ones. The niche is closed off with a granite frontispiece bearing the occupant’s name and age and the date of their passing.
Anyone can reserve their niche before their own death, while the service will also be available to those who already have the ashes of their loved ones safely stored. Niches are offered on a 30-year lease. At the end of the lease, ashes will be buried underneath the racecourse. Cheltenham Annual Members will be handed a priority window of six weeks through to the end of The Festival, before opening it up to the wider racing community.
The number of niches is limited to 800 and offered on a first come, first served basis.
An Inurnment Ceremony will take place to insert the urn into its own niche, while an Inurnment Day – a separate dedicated occasion – will give friends and family the opportunity to visit the Cheltenham Columbarium Wall and raise a glass in their memory.
With a stylish design created specifically for Cheltenham, the wall is situated by the Centaur Bridge at the entrance to the racecourse and provides a resting place which can be visited all year round.
