Deceased Online completes digitisation project for Bolton Council Completing the digitisation project of Bolton Council, 136,000 cremation records of Overdale Crematorium have been added to the database . From today all the records from 1954-1993 will be available to search. The plot of what would become Overdale Crematorium (1950) Overdale Crematorium at Heaton was opened in September 1954 by Lord Horder of the Cremation Society. Its foundation stone was laid by George Sykes, who had served as a Conservative Mayor of Bolton from 1931 to 1932. Sykes was born in Hull in 1874 and began work in a drapery business. He eventually became a director of Hampsons confectioners. A great champion of parks and open spaces, Sykes also took an interest in cremation, and was a keen advocate for the new crematorium. The idea for a crematorium in Bolton emerged as far back as 1938, but was delayed by the Second World War. After he died on 5 March 1958, George Sykes was cremated at...