Good Funeral Awards

Green Funeral Director of the Year

28 September 2016
Fran Hall
No comments
Categories: funeral customs, Good Funeral Awards, green funeral, independent funeral directors, natural burial, Natural Death Centre, perceptions of funeral directors, Personalisation, The future of funerals

16-jo-lorna-vassie-higher-ground-meadow-green-funeral-director

Lorna and Jo Vassie of Higher Ground Family Funerals

Jo Vassie is one of the leading figures in the world of natural burial; her site near Dorchester currently holds the Natural Death Centre’s People’s Award for the Best Natural Burial Ground in the UK.

With a custom built facility and a determination to be able to provide undertaking services for the many families that asked for her assistance, Jo is a great example of the no-nonsense, sensible and down to earth approach, which does away with any fluff or complications when it comes to caring for the dead.

She has an unfussy, straightforward and completely unassuming nature and brings this approach to her work caring for both the dead and their families, and she and her small family team are successfully growing this complementary business alongside their main love, which is of providing the highest quality natural burial.

In 2013, after years of trying to encourage her husband to consider offering an undertaking service for families choosing to be buried at Higher Ground Meadow, Jo and her son Tom decided that it was time to bite the bullet. They converted some space on their farm to suitable premises for caring for dead people, and bought a 9-seater vehicle that Tom adapted by removing the two back rows of seats and adding a shelf with rollers.

At the time of entering for the awards HGFF have carried out 71 funerals including some cremations, although invariably the majority of funerals involve a natural burial at Higher Ground Meadow. Bodies are cared for naturally, no toxic chemicals are involved and they don’t embalm, nor stitch mouths together or use plastic eye caps. Jo and her daughter in law, Lorna, take care of the bodies in their mortuary, and they take pride in making people look as nice as they can for their families. Some are dressed in their own clothes, others in a cotton gown supplied by HGFF, and all are laid on a thick cream coloured calico sheet before being placed in their coffin. All coffins are biodegradable, and the very reasonable costs are all displayed online.

Families are encouraged to be involved with the funeral, and hired bearers are rarely used – where necessary, four local men will help out but most families are pleased to do this part themselves with Jo’s help and guidance.

One of the many testimonials received reads; ’ How can I ever thank you enough? You have been there for me and my daughter every step of the way during this terrible, bewildering and heart breaking time. Everything you have done for us and for my darling husband has been so perfect. What you do for the grieving and the passed over is so very, very special. You are an angel, I am certain. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart”

 

Runner Up in this category: Only With Love

Best Green Funeral Product

27 September 2016
Fran Hall
No comments
Categories: funeral trends, Good Funeral Awards, green funeral, Hearses

12-andrew-briggs-brahms-electric-hearse-best-green-funeral-product

Andrew Briggs Of Brahms Electric Vehicles

‘This is a category that the judges think will grow over the years; with a number of strong contenders already jostling to win, the market for green funeral products is, forgive the pun, a ripening one.

The Brahms electric Eco-hearse is the only one of its kind and the only green alternative to the gas-guzzling motor hearse.

It was chosen as the winner not least for the dogged persistence with which the founders, Stephen Cousins and Andrew Briggs, have persevered against setbacks, and refined their product and their offering in the face of little take up by the funeral industry, well known for their love of the current, very non green mainstream way of doing things.

Funeral director David Billington said: “At a funeral earlier this year, the Brahms eco-hearse was requested by the family, who were very keen to make everything involved in the funeral as environmentally friendly as possible. The Eco-hearse fits seamlessly into this experience, and was a large talking point during the wake due to its striking and unusual appearance compared to a more traditional hearse.

With the Eco-Hearse being part of our fleet, we feel confident that we can offer a higher level of personalised service to every family. Although, this may not be everyone’s first choice as a hearse, I can say that every person who has seen the Eco-hearse has been extremely positive about it. Not only about its appearance, but also what it represents in regards to the funeral industry.

We believe that industry has been very slow to move with the times, and with the arrival of a product like the Eco-hearse, we are hopeful that this is just the tip of the iceberg, in regards to what the future holds for everyone within the sector.”

brahms-electric-hearse

 

Runner Up in this category: Eco-Urns

Low Cost Funeral Director of the Year

26 September 2016
Fran Hall
10 Comments
Categories: Arranging a funeral, funeral, funeral cost, funeral directors, funeral poverty, Good Funeral Awards, independent funeral directors, Social Fund Funeral Payment

15-lucy-coulbert-low-cost-provider

Lucy Coulbert of Coulbert Family Funerals

Having geared her business specifically to help families of limited means arrange dignified and respectful funerals, Lucy was the only funeral director in England and Wales to give evidence to the 2016 DWP Bereavement Benefits Enquiry.

Lucy gives a 100% customer-focused service, unconstrained by the traditions of funeral service. In an industry which sets great store by conformity and mystique, Lucy is somewhat of a maverick. She does what she believes to be right and pays no heed to gainsayers.

She is at the forefront of a new, open way of doing things and her practice is a beacon to anyone contemplating establishing their own funeral business. She has been brave and outspoken and richly deserves this recognition.

Lucy has committed herself to supporting people of limited means, helping them create an affordable funeral. Funeral poverty has become a major issue in these times of austerity. Lucy created Coulbert Family Funerals to exclusively help people applying to the DWP for financial help paying for a funeral.

In the furtherance of the cause of combatting funeral poverty, Lucy gave evidence the Bereavement Benefits enquiry conducted by the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) this year giving both oral and written evidence about the causes of, and solutions to, funeral poverty with Baroness Altmann and the DWP. She was the only person asked to attend all three meetings in the capacity of a funeral director.

Lucy is highly responsive to what her clients ask for. She publishes all her prices online, thereby achieving a transparency that all funeral directors would do well to emulate.

Lucy said: “I help people arrange the funeral they want in the way they want, and I do so in the most ethical way I can. I listen to what people want and don’t try to push them into having things they don’t want or need.”

 

Runner Up in this Category: Funerals on a Budget

Best Maker of Hand Carved Memorials in an Indigenous Material

25 September 2016
Fran Hall
1 Comment
Categories: Good Funeral Awards, memorialisation, Memorialising

14-hannah-wessel-stoneletters-memorial

Hannah Wessel of Stoneletters

Fergus Wessel, founder of Stoneletters, is a master of his craft, and provides a personal, sensitive service for bereaved families. He operates from his workshop in the Cotswolds with his small team, and prospective clients are encouraged to go and meet him there to see his work up close and discuss the options.

Fergus believes in a personal service and that the best ideas for wording for a headstone come through talking and learning more about the person the stone is to commemorate.

Slowly, through exploring choices of the different materials, ideas for wording and different designs, Fergus and the client together create a memorial that is totally unique: “As the maker, I feel a strong obligation to talk through every aspect of the inscription with the client so that every mark we make on the stone is purposeful and deliberate.”

Always using British materials wherever possible, every headstone is made with love and care from conception to completion, in close collaboration with the client, and with no limitations on the size or shape of inscription.

Stoneletters believe in choice without boundaries, and that almost anything is possible, but at the same time Fergus and his team have a thorough knowledge and understanding of the necessary requirements of local authorities and Diocesan regulations.

 

Runner Up in this category: Bierton & Woods Stonemasons

Most Significant Contribution to the Understanding of Death

24 September 2016
Fran Hall
No comments
Categories: death and funerals, funeral trends, Good Funeral Awards, Grief

13-amanda-woodward-2

Amanda Woodward of Tamworth Co-operative Funeral Service

Tamworth Co-operative Funeral Service is leading the way in working with their local community to understand the myriad of emotions and potential difficulties they may have to endure during a bereavement.

Around six years ago, the company took the bold decision to invest in this area of communicating knowledge, and opened a bereavement service in the centre of Tamworth. This was launched in the local press, inviting people who had any type of question relating to a future or past bereavement to simply walk in their door and ask. Initially there was much skepticism over the idea, but in a short space of time, with regular newspaper prompts reaffirming that free advice is just a phone call or step through a door away, many people of Tamworth use the bereavement centre for guidance and advice. Cheryl Dutton, who mans the centre is not only part of the dedicated staff, but also a trained counsellor available to offer a listening ear and gentle support when needed.

Tamworth Co-op also use social media as a way of linking with the local community, not just as a vehicle for promoting their business. They offer innovative awareness raising events, support local organisations working with bereaved families and host many physical events that encourage bereaved people to come together, giving a greater understanding of perspective and in turn helping individuals find some company and comfort.

The judges felt that this low key, community based, thoughtful approach to bringing the difficult subject of death and bereavement into general awareness is of huge value, and believe the work being done by Tamworth Co-op deserves to be widely applauded.

 

Runner Up in this category: Beyond Goodbye

Best Alternative to a Hearse

22 September 2016
Fran Hall
No comments
Categories: alternative funerals, Good Funeral Awards, Hearses

11-gordon-tulley-best-alternative-to-a-hearse

Gordon Tulley of Respect Bentley

Gordon’s 1948 Bentley Birkin Special is this year’s classiest and most distinctive addition to the range of alternative hearses available to bereaved people who want to personalize their funeral.

Gordon Tulley is a restlessly entrepreneurial innovator in the funerals business. He owns natural burial grounds, is a specialist in direct cremation and direct burial and he is inventor of the Respect Everybody shroud – http://shrouds4all.blogspot.co.uk/

Gordon’s hearse is a 1948 Bentley Birkin Special, one of only 20 survivors. The bier is from a 1912 Viceroy carriage and is suitable for most coffin sizes. It is available nationally.

In launching his vintage Bentley hearse, Gordon has married his love of motorcars to his commitment to offering bereaved people imaginative ways of personalizing the sendoffs of their loved ones.

Gordon is a huge character.

respect-bentley

Runner Up in this category: Harrison Funeral Home Electric Vehicle

 

Best Funeral Caterer

21 September 2016
Fran Hall
No comments
Categories: funeral, funeral food, funeral trends, Good Funeral Awards

10-sandy-weatherburn-for-claret-catering

Sandy Weatherburn accepting the award on behalf of Dawn Thompson of Claret Catering

What sets Dawn apart is her vocation to create and cater for appropriate and meaningful funeral after-parties.

Dawn is unusual among caterers in having a special calling to cater for funeral after-parties – wakes, teas, call them what you will. For Dawn, catering is not just about feeding people on happy occasions. It has always been her ambition to be the person whom families call to cater for all the special occasions of their lives from birth to death.

Dawn said: “I am not afraid to talk about death, nor do I shy away from those who are bereaved and grieving. It is my policy to always visit the family members who are arranging the wake. I am happy to sit for as long as is needed, talking and more importantly, listening to stories and memories of a person I will never meet but who will be the centre of my attention, making sure that ‘what he/she would have liked’ is catered for and taken care of. A wake is part of the rite of passage which, after the funeral, gives people “permission” to move on with their lives again.”

Dawn has even looked after the family dog whilst the bereaved family is at the crematorium.

 

Runner Up in this category: Tamworth Co-operative Funeral Service

Best Internet Bereavement Resource

21 September 2016
Fran Hall
No comments
Categories: bereavement, funeral trends, Good Funeral Awards, memorialisation, onlime memorial sites

09-jonathan-davies-muchloved-best-internet-bereavement-resource

Jonathan Davies of MuchLoved.com

MuchLoved, the UK’s best and most ethical memorial website, is ten years old this year, and has facilitated more than £25 million of donations to charities. The award celebrates these achievements together with the unpaid input of co-founder Andy Daniels.

Andy Daniels, who founded MuchLoved.com with Jonathan Davies, and is the technical brains behind the platform, is stopping day-to-day work with MuchLoved this year after more than a decade of unpaid volunteer work helping to create and then develop the service. He’s lost thousands of hours of sleep in the meantime. Andy has played a leading part in getting MuchLoved.com to where it is today.

MuchLoved was conceived and founded by Jonathan Davies after he suffered the sudden death of his brother Philip aged just 21 whilst at University in 1995. MuchLoved is the working name of the MuchLoved Charitable Trust which was awarded registered charity status early in 2007. It is run by a board of trustees.

Jonathan Davies said: “In the mid and late 1990’s I lost both my brother and mother in quick succession. My brother’s death at the young age of 21 was in particular sudden, unexpected and overwhelming in shock.

“I was keen to create some sort of online memorial to him, a legacy that could show many of his happy years and make it easy for his school and university friends in particular to view, make contact and send in pictures and thoughts of their own. After some research I found however that there was no appropriate service available and I also felt that the technology and cost needed to create the type of tribute I wanted was prohibitive.

“I was also preoccupied with my own grieving and sense of loss and imagined that people were maybe not yet ready for the idea of an online memorial. After a few years my life started to move on again in a positive direction, with marriage and children, but the idea did not go away. In March 2000 I registered the domain name MuchLoved.com and a couple of years later started to meet with my friend and computer programmer Andy Daniels to discuss actively making the idea a reality.”

MuchLoved.com is a labour of love. Andy’s volunteer work is matched by the commitment, hours of unpaid work and thousands of pounds of his own money that Jonathan Davies himself has poured into this project.

 

Runner Up in this category: Funeral Stationery 4U

Crematorium of the Year

19 September 2016
Fran Hall
No comments
Categories: cremation, funeral poverty, Good Funeral Awards

08-martin-birch-thornhill-crematorium

Martin Birch of Thornhill Crematorium, Cardiff

This year’s winner is particularly praised for addressing funeral poverty in imaginative ways, not least through participation in the pioneering initiative of the local authority funeral scheme, which challenges the rising cost of funerals, while making the funeral purchase more transparent. Approximately 12% of cremations carried out at this crematorium use this service.

Performing around 2,700 cremations annually, Thornhill Crematorium has a 98% satisfaction rating from families who choose it

Rated as providing gold standard provision for both cremation and burial under the Charter for the Bereaved criteria, recent outstanding improvements to their premises have included refurbishing both chapels and changing the structural layout at no additional cost to the Authority through an innovative budget strategy.

With strong environmental awareness and a comprehensive recycling scheme, this year’s winner has attained Green Flag status, an acknowledgement of being one of the best green spaces in the country.

Runner up in this category: Mortlake Crematorium

Category sponsor: Scattering Ashes

Cemetery of the Year

18 September 2016
Fran Hall
No comments
Categories: burial, cemeteries, Good Funeral Awards

07-mohamed-omer-cemetery

Mohamed Omer from Gardens of Peace Muslim Cemetery

Against all the odds the Trustees of the Gardens of Peace have transformed wasteland into a beautiful and sustainable burial ground.

The story of the creation of the Gardens of Peace is one of gentle heroism.

The shortage of burial space in and around London is of great concern to many, and particularly to those faiths that forbid cremation.

The Garden of Peace Cemetery was originally a concept devised by a small group of people within the area that was able to identify an available piece of barren land and gain planning consent for a cemetery.

The small group enlisted others to form a Trust/registered charity and commenced the purchase of the land and its initial design. This was not without many problems in relation to the land itself being waterlogged, fly-tipped and in an appalling condition. A polluted stream also ran through the site.

There was also some local opposition and one instance of serious vandalism in the early days. Notwithstanding this the Trustees pressed on and were able to overcome these early difficulties. It should be noted that the Trustees sought no funding from the public purse and hence the project is a true community venture.

Donations were received from the community that enabled the laying out of the cemetery and the erection of buildings, all of which have strong environmental benefits, for example:

  • The buildings are constructed of natural timber and are as open as possible
  • The largest building roof has a green roof so that neighbours’ view is pleasant.
  • Buildings are clad to reduce noise.
  • Water is provided from a borehole.
  • Buildings are heated via solar panels.
  • Extensive landscaping to protect the green belt and wildlife and natural habitat
  • All the burials are conducted without the use of coffins.
  • Graves are covered with a sedum mat giving a natural country look rather than graves.
  • All the excess spoil is recycled using a soil grading machine
  • The once polluted stream that was void of any life at all received detailed attention to a point where plants and wildlife had re-established themselves. Unfortunately the stream was polluted by a business upstream, however the Trustees simply started again and restored the situation.

Recognising the need for support for Muslim Women who lose a child at any stage, Gardens of Peace set up Muslim Bereavement Support Service and work closely with all the national organisation as well as NHS so that spiritual bereavement support can be provided to mothers of the Muslim faith.

The Gardens are run entirely by volunteers headed by a lady Muslim GP.

Runner up in this category: Higher Ground Meadow