From Brian Jenner over at GoodFuneralAwards
The judging panel of the Good Funeral Awards have sifted through more than 600 nominations for this year’s Good Funeral Awards and have longlisted the following.
The judges have requested that their deliberations remain secret. While they appreciate that many people will be disappointed, they wish to remind everyone that this is an annual event, and each year the method of selection improves. Please do not lose heart, just enter again next year.
If you are a nominee, make sure you’ve got a ticket for the dinner. We sold out last year, and we do not wish to turn nominees away this year.
Heaven on Earth Bespoke Green & Pink Funerals Most Promising New Funeral Director
Poppy Mardall – Poppy’s Funerals
Charlotte Graham – Charlotte Graham Funeral Directors
Sarah Stuart and Lel Wallace – Wallace Stuart
Stacey Bentley – AW Lymn the Family Funeral Service
Christian Fairbrother – Rosedale Funeral Home
Rory Craig – Hinton Park Woodland Burial Ground
Hazel Pittwood – FC Douch
Leah Edwards – Country Funerals
Embalmer of the Year
Liz Davis – freelance
Lisa Fox – Southampton area Co-operative Funeralcare.
Angie McLachlan – freelance
The Eternal Slumber Award for Coffin Supplier of the Year
Yuli Somme – Bellacouche,
Roger Fowle – Willow Coffins
Martin Wenyon – Coffins Direct
Most Significant Contribution to the Understanding of Death
Jean Francis
Pia Interlandi
Kristie West
The Natural Death Handbook
Barbara Chalmers – Final Fling
Death Café
Crematorium Attendant of the Year
Andy at Colwyn Bay
Paul Lawrence at Haycombe
Mandy Ryan and Martin McEvilly at Redditch
Best Internet Bereavement Resource
Jane Harris and Jimmy Edmonds for: Say Their Name, made for the Compassionate Friends.
Kim Bird for http://www.rightchoicefunerals.com/home
James Norris for http://www.deadsoci.al/
The Natural Death Centre for its website: http://www.naturaldeath.org.uk/
Teresa Evans for http://evansaboveonline.co.uk/
Jean Francis for www.pre-needfuneralplanning.co.uk
The Blossom d’Amour Award For Funeral Floristry
Heather Gorringe – Great British Florist
Donald Thornford — Blue Geranium
Helen Pyle — Flowers by Helen
Funeral Celebrant of the Year
David Abel
Dee Ryding
Jan Comley
Canon Reverend Eve Pits
Barbara Millar
Deborah Bouch
Sue Goodrum
Jill Maguire
Tim Clark
Georgina Pugh
Kim Farley
Janice Smith
Noel Lockyer-Stevens
Lynne Watson
Cemetery of the Year Award
Rotherfield Greys
Sun Rising Natural Burial Ground
Cardiff and the Vale
Higher Ground Meadow
Clandon Wood
Gravedigger of the Year
Stuart Goodacre, Horncastle, Lincolnshire
Paul Rackham
Steve Swyer, Epsom Cemetery
Tom Vassie
Funeral Planning Services Best Funeral Arranger
Dee Besley – Rosedale Funeral Home
Angela Bailey – Harrison Funeral Home, Enfield, Middlesex
Sue Kilday – EH Crouch Funeral Directors
Joyce Callaghan – AW Lymn, the Family Funeral Service
The Bereavement Register Funeral Director of the Year
John Harris – T Cribb and Sons in Beckton East London
David Summers – AW Lymn, the Family Funeral Service
Richard Green – Rosedale, Diss
Jeremy Clutterbuck – L.W.Clutterbuck
Cara Mair – Arka, Brighton
Best Alternative to a Hearse
V W Funerals
David Hall, vintage lorry.
Alba Orbital
Lifetime Achievement Award
Paula Rainey Crofts & Simon Dorgan
Ian Hazel
Josefine Speyer
GreenAcres Woodland Burials Green Funeral Director of the Year
Rosie Grant from Natural Endings
Leverton & Sons
Heaven on Earth
Clandon Wood
The Green Funeral Company
Jean Francis
Winners will be announced by Pam St Clement at a dinner in the Ocean View Hotel on Saturday 7 September.
CERTIFICATES OF NOMINATION
If you would like to order a full-colour A4 certificate confirming your nomination, which can be displayed in your premises, we can supply one for £20. You can either pick up the certificate on the night or we will send it to you. Please email info@goodfuneralawards.co.uk with your name and an address to send the invoice.
Please note that here at the GFG we now post most of our stuff on Facebook these days. If you want to spice your day with newsy snippets from our web-harvesting team, make your way over to https://www.facebook.com/GoodFuneralGuide and Like us.
Best of luck all.
I forgot to nominate the Church for the Most Significant Contribution to the Understanding of Death category!
Next year I will be nominating Steve Gillert of Dignity, Last Year he was Funeral Director of D.J Thomas & Son (Bargoed) Now he runs 5 branches in the South Wales Valleys. Yet Again like with my Auntie Millie last year he made sure my brother had a special send off Thursday just gone.
Also I will be nominating Ivor The Grave Digger at Gwaelod y Brithdir, Caerphilly County Borough Council, as when I went back to the cemetery to watch my brothers burial he and his colleagues were brilliant, they even gave me a jacket as it was pouring with rain and I didnt have a jacket. It really brought some comfort to me and they gave me the opportunity to help display the flowers on the grave. Best thing I ever done was go back and watch the burial when my family etc left for the wake.
I’m really pleased & flattered that Death Cafe is long-listed, thanks everyone who nominated us.
Like Richard I just wanted to shout out a couple of (what are for me) notable omissions:
– Down to Earth who are an inspiration
– Of course the wonderful Good Funeral Guide without which this wouldn’t be happening
I’m flattered to have been nominated in the field of Most Promising New Funeral Director. Well done to all nominees!