T Cribb & Sons - Company History
T Cribb & Sons, Funeral Directors, is a family-run partnership that was established in 1881 by Thomas Cribb, grandfather of the present senior partner, Stan. The third, fourth and now fifth generation of the family continues to run the partnership to this day with Stan, his sons Graham and John and John's daughter, Sarah and Graham's son, Jack, still maintaining the high standards and traditional values set down by the founder. These standards and values have always been paramount to the way in which the business itself has been managed and the direction it has taken to this day.
Since it began in 1881, T Cribb & Sons has helped tens of thousands of people arrange funerals of all sizes and embracing all religions and cultures.
Throughout that time, the five generations of this family-run business have built on the high standards, trust and traditional values laid down by its founder, Thomas Cribb. This commitment to excellence has earned T Cribb & Sons an unrivalled reputation for combining these values with a contemporary business approach.
Tradition has played a key role in the day-to-day running of the business with great emphasis being placed on attention to detail and care for the families of the deceased. This emphasis on tradition and traditional customs has culminated in the re-introduction of the Victorian horse-drawn hearse to the funerals of T Cribb & Sons. The horse-drawn hearses led by black Dutch Friesian horses are now recognised as the premier turnout in Great Britain and have won major shows including Royal Windsor and Smiths Lawn and funerals are carried out all over the country by T Cribb & Sons' horses and hearses.
When the grandson of our founder Stan Harris, commenced work with the family business in 1942, his initial training was in the care and presentation of the stables and "his" Friesians became his first love. The motor hearse replaced the horse-drawn hearse in the late 1940s.
Forty years later, in the mid 1980s, Stan's son Graham discovered an original 1900 'Washington' glass hearse. This was lovingly restored to its former glory, and in keeping with his grandfather's strong belief that if you are going to do anything, only the best will do, no expense was spared in having exact replica recreated of all the harness, using old photographs and books as a basis. Luckily we still had all our original velvets and truncheons and these are still in excellent condition and continue to adorn our funerals. We also still use plumes that were predominant in the Victorian era. The Undertakers Association banned these in 1914 as when they were wet, the weight of the plumes would cause the head to droop. Today, we use dyed black ostrich feathers to adorn the heads of our funeral horses as a token of this past tradition.
On an outing to Windsor Horse show Graham noticed a Dutch group showing Friesian horses. The next logical step was a trip to Holland to purchase a pair. Since the first trip we have purchased many more, and we now proudly own ten Friesian black beauties.
The traditional funeral horse is of Friesian breed, more commonly known as the "Belgian Black". When the horses were first imported to Britain there was no port in the Netherlands their home country, and so they were transported over Belgium, exported on barges from Antwerp. They were then taken up the Thames to the Elephant and Castle area of London where they were sold in market every Thursday.
At present we carry out in the region of 1200 motor hearse funerals per year but last year we carried out 640 horse-drawn funerals as well, proving the popularity of the traditional horse-drawn hearse. The horse-drawn funerals were not just in the London area - our horses and carriages travelled all over the United Kingdom by special request of the families who wish to have horse-drawn funeral for their family funerals.
Within the next few years, it is foreseen that the Head Office at Beckton will be extended to house the National Funeral History Museum. This will incorporate a lecture theatre with library and reference facilities, and also catering facilities for receptions, etc, and is intended to incorporate T Cribb & Sons Educational Centre.
It is the aim of the National Funeral Museum to:-
preserve local and national heritage, culture and traditions regarding traditional funeral procedures
represent the history of funeral procedures
make available to the public and interested parties, artefacts and memorabilia which represent a historical, sociological, anthropological and archaeological perspective of funerals and funeral traditions
provide an educational facility for universities, colleges, hospitals, hospices and to the funeral profession.
It is intended that this will also introduce the general public into the field of funerals and funeral directors and help to dispel the myths and prejudices surrounding the profession and the subject of death.
Our mission statement reflects our intentions to promote high standards not only within the business but also within the profession and theses are also identified within the company objectives.
"We intend to continue to be leaders in our profession, providing a complete, quality funeral service to our families both local and nation-wide. To continue to uphold the standards of professionalism and the traditions established by the founder five generations ago is of paramount importance."
We are proud to live by this statement and will continue to improve and extend our services for the next 125 years.