£1.5m investment in North East funeral hub

Five Northumberland funeral firms are set to benefit from a rebrand and major upgrade to their funeral home facilities as parent company, William Purves Funeral Directors, invests a total of £1.5 million to bring its Northern branches under one banner and create a funeral hub for the North East.
William Purves is a fifth-generation family owned and run business.William Purves is a fifth-generation family owned and run business.
William Purves is a fifth-generation family owned and run business.

For generations, Jacob Conroy & Son (Morpeth and Guidepost), Alistair Turner (Alnwick, Amble and Rothbury), Gary Staker (Monkseaton and Shiremoor), Tom Woodhouse (Blyth) and Peter Grenfell (Ashington) have provided funeral services to their local communities.

Over the last 16 years, they have all joined William Purves, a fifth-generation family owned and run business.

This month the same teams come together under a single brand identity, delivering their services from the same nine branches in Northumberland. The range of services is further strengthened by a significant £1.5m refurbishment to create a funeral home hub in Ashington (formerly Peter Grenfell).

The purpose-built funeral home increases resources to meet the needs of bereaved families throughout the region now and for the future. The recent upgrades include the creation of a new large service room for up to 90 people and a catering venue.

A new state-of-the-art mortuary, chapels of rest and embalming centre ensure loved ones are cared for in the most sophisticated facilities, which enables families to arrange funerals, attend a viewing and say goodbye in person, even during Covid.

Throughout Covid, William Purves’ branches in the North East have led with creative solutions ensuring the right to say goodbye was always protected. They have adapted aspects of their service to help people arrange meaningful funerals and make plans and enable funeral attendance through virtual means. This innovation is backed by a suite of free resources which includes advice materials on funeral planning.

Members of the local community are invited to get in touch with firms in the North East to make new plans or update existing arrangements on 01670 812 117.