Introducing ourselves and our locations

Hello and welcome to our website. My name is Michael Lawrence and together with my wife Lea and the wonderful funeral directors Rik,  Karan, Tara and Jo we operate Family Funeral Service. Together we have decades of experience and we like to think we provide excellent levels of service.

The offices are in Barming and Bearsted, both in Maidstone, and in Headcorn.

Over 40 years experience

I am very proud to be a second generation Funeral Director and have been serving the families of Maidstone and the local villages for approaching 50 years! That is a scary thing to write believe me. I still think I’m only 25. Having written that I now feel really old at approaching 70. However, with all the knowledge and experience of a second generation, family owned business we know how to concentrate on caring for your needs with commitment and understanding.

Caring funeral directors

You will find Karan at Bearsted, Rik at Barming and Tara at Headcorn. Jo is our roving Funeral Director covering while the others take their holidays.  With me moving between the three offices. I really feel that they just want me out of the way, so that they can meet all the families and conduct all the funerals. Just leaving me to wash the cars! I have to say they are a wonderful team to work with.  I have enjoyed watching them blossom into truly caring funeral directors (but please don’t tell them I said that). They are all supported by Lea covering all the IT areas that the company deals with, and Lea has created some of the systems we use from scratch. Such a blessing to have this lady by my side, looking after all the staff with me.

New dimension in Service

These wonderful people have brought us a new dimension in the service we work hard to provide. Between us, and the other excellent staff behind the scenes, you can leave us to get the details right to the highest standards.  Naturally we are proud members of the ‘National Association of Funeral Directors’. Please please please, be sure you appoint a qualified and inspected Funeral Provider.

24 hour personal contact

We gladly offer a 24 hour personal service, and you can contact myself, or a member of my team by calling: 01622 920305 for Karan (Bearsted) or 01622 920300 for Rik (Barming) or 01622 920306 for Tara (Headcorn).

Channel 4 Documentary

In April 2020 we featured on the Channel 4 documentary about Covid 19. Channel 4 called us to ask if we could help with the making of the documentary and we were very happy to oblige. They were here for quite a while and we all thought the programme would be really good, for the company at least. Sadly I now know what its like to be left on the cutting room floor! Have a look and you will see that a couple of hours filming ended up with about 5 mins of the documentary! 

Unique and meaningful service

With our unrivalled experience of making funeral arrangements, we’ve learnt how to help families have their own unique and very meaningful service. This personalised approach supports our clients through their process of bereavement.  No two families are ever the same and therefore no two funerals are either.

A warm welcome

Please navigate to the other pages on this website. There you will find all the information you need regarding our services. We have included maps showing how to find us.  When you visit we offer a warm welcome with ample and easy parking right outside the door. We will provide tea or coffee almost on a drip as we drink so much of it!

 

Saving you money

If you end up looking at the coffins, I have to tell you we only stock the Chiltern Oak coffin continuously (I’d rather be honest with you). If you would prefer something different, we will happily order it for you. However think carefully as we would rather you put that extra towards the cost of a funeral plan. I know that is not a popular thing to say, however it would make it easier for someone to follow your wishes. Just a thought.

Thank you for visiting,

Michael Lawrence