Creating a lasting tribute that honours the life of your loved one is a personal journey. With care and dignity, we are here to guide you every step of the way, offering an extensive range of beautifully crafted memorials from local stonemasons, available in a range of styles, materials and finishes to suit every preference and budget. By using our team, every detail is handled with precision and respect, ensuring a fitting tribute that commemorates the life it represents.
As an established team, we handle every stage of the process, from design to placement, working with skilled stonemasons to ensure a seamless experience. Beginning with an initial brief, a design preview is created to illustrate the shape, lettering and dates, fully compliant with all relevant local authority regulations. Before engraving, you will have the opportunity to meet with us to review the layout, making any adjustments to the inscription or design, as desired.
Our teams can provide a wide range of standard and themed headstones for cemetery graves, made from a choice of materials which include granite, marble, slate and stone. Most of our headstones are made from highly durable granite, available in many colours, from greys to pinks, to blacks and browns. Granite is one of the strongest materials for headstone use, designed and crafted to last decades.
Every local authority and individual cemetery has regulations regarding the types of headstone it will allow, including limitations on the headstone style, the overall proportions as well as details in the inscription. Our dedicated teams are experienced in understanding all the local rules, ensuring that all memorial plans are fully approved with the local council and burial authority before any memorial work is started.
Owned and maintained by the Church of England, churchyards often have very specific rules surrounding the style and placement of headstones in their grounds. Unlike a cemetery, where specifications and inscription details are generally more relaxed, churchyards do not usually permit heart or otherwise shaped headstones, and many will insist on stone or light coloured marble, rather than polished granite.
Specifications for churchyard gravestones tend to be more focussed around natural tones and religious shapes, designed to complement the other stones that are already installed in the grounds, and inline with other churchyards in the dioceses. Our teams will be always be happy to liaise with local churches on your behalf to check the rules and regulations that need to be honoured before choosing a memorial.
Even if your loved one has a cremation instead of a burial, they can still have a headstone, either on a plot at a cemetery or through interment in a bereavement garden. Most crematoriums have a dedicated area for memorials, and local churchyards and cemeteries usually have plots for cremated remains, where a memorial or headstone can be placed in memory, sometimes near to relatives and family members.
Cremation memorials are often a lot smaller than headstones used for burials, and usually contain a single or double vase, or space for mourners to leave flowers and tributes. When arranging for a cremation memorial, it is important to check with the crematorium, cemetery or bereavement garden to find out whether there are any restrictions on what memorials are allowed, where they can be placed and the type of inscription.
A larger alternative to the traditional lawn headstone, kerbset memorials cover the full grave and are one option that you might want to consider when choosing an appropriate headstone for your loved one. Kerbsets are often chosen to make a gravestone stand out, or for larger families where more flowers or tributes may be left for the deceased. Some styles of kerbset allow for the central area to be filled with coloured stones, natural chippings, plants and shrubs, whilst others come with a matching cover slab or vases.
Also known as a kerbed headstone, kerbsets often allow more space for inscriptions and tributes, allowing families to get more creative with the design. You could opt for an additional footplate with your kerbset, allowing space for another inscription, or you could go with a different decorative feature entirely. If you have a specific idea in mind for a kerbset, or require a specific shape, style or material, please do let us know and we can ensure you have all the options available before making a choice.
With a proud sixty year history, our funeral directors will care for your loved one as if they were our own, our family caring for yours. Cliff Bradley & Sons is an appointed representative of Golden Charter Limited trading as Golden Charter Funeral Plans, authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FRN:965279).
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