LEWISHAM Crematorium is offering a service to funeral directors across the country who have full-figured clients.

The expanding girth of the UK population has left undertakers with the problem of how to carry out cremations because the doors of most ovens are not large enough to take the biggest coffins.

But Lewisham's crematorium in Verdant Lane has one of the few ovens, or cremulators, in England with extra-large doors and because of this is attracting custom from all over the country.

Built in the 19th Century, the crematorium is helping red-faced funeral directors tackle the problem of heavyweight clients' custom-built coffins.

Now the larger of these clients are making the long final journey from places such as Birmingham, Norfolk and Gloucester to be cremated at Lewisham.

A Lewisham funeral director, who preferred to remain anonymous, says the problem for crematoria may well become widespread in future years as the effects of obesity filter down.

But he has always catered for customers of all shapes and sizes, with custom-built coffins a regular part of his business.

He said: "Everyone is different. Even Heinz comes in 57 varieties."

The funeral director says if a coffin is really large, eight pallbearers could share the load instead of the usual six.

But he did not think the regular weightlifting made for a particularly fit team of pallbearers: "They're always puffing and wheezing whatever the load," he said.

Cabinet minister for the environment Councillor Andrew Brown said: "It is a very important part of our work to provide the best service we can.

"When people have had to travel a long way for the service, we want to make sure they are looked after and feel their loved-ones have been treated with dignity and respect."

Roughly 70 per cent of people chose to be cremated these days.

Lewisham Crematorium performs more than 2,000 cremations a year.