TWO Spennymoor cemeteries are in the running for the national Cemetery of the Year Awards.

Spennymoor and Tudhoe cemeteries, operated by Spennymoor Town Council, are finalists in the five to 15 acres category.

The Spennymoor sites are also both nominated for a new award for 2009, the best garden of remembrance, and Tudhoe is in the running for the freedom of choice award.

Castleside Cemetery, in Consett, is nominated in the under five acres category and Tarn Moor Memorial Woodland in Skipton, North Yorkshire, is up for three awards. The 12th annual competition organised by the Memorial Awareness Board aims to find Britain’s best cemeteries, churchyards, crematoria, green burial sites and pet cemeteries.

It also aims to raise standards in burial grounds so they are tranquil spaces of reflection, preserved as important social, historical and environmental resources and to encourage choice for the bereaved.

Winners will be unveiled in September.