Abbey Funeral Services - Funeral Services in Hildenborough | Cremations, Green Funerals & Funeral Plans

Funerals in Hildenborough

At Abbey Funeral Services, we work hard to make sure that your funeral arrangements are handled with care and dignity. We are among the leading funeral directors in the West Kent area, having started our family-run funeral planning service in 1983.

Throughout our 40 years of expertise, we have prided ourselves on our ability to plan and manage funerals that meet the expectations of our clients.

We consider you and your family’s needs fully, offering a personalised package for each family.

Alongside Hildenborough, we offer our funeral services in:

Abbey Funeral Services is regulated by the Funeral Planning Authority, and we are a member of the Society of Allied and Independent Funeral Directors. We work to a recognised code of practice, ensuring you get only the highest quality service from us.

We do more for our community than plan funerals. We manage a local West Kent charity called Friends Together. We provide bereavement therapy, with professional therapists, to help mourning people of all ages in the Hildenborough area overcome their tragic loss. We support bereaved families by assisting them through the grieving process.

Cremations Hildenborough

Cremation for residents in Hildenborough

Cremating is becoming more and more popular in the UK with each passing year. That’s because families enjoy the many benefits it has over traditional burials:

The ashes can be shared

A wonderful aspect of cremation is that your ashes or the ashes of your loved one can be divided amongst the family and shared. This way members of your family who live outside of the Hildenborough area can pay respects without travelling to the grave site.

The ashes can be spread

Many people who get cremated wish for their ashes to be spread in a place significant to their hearts. When you cremate, you can lay your loved one to rest wherever they’d like.

Cremating allows for creative ceremonies

Funerals don’t have to follow strict conventions any more, and many people choose to have more creative ceremonies through cremations. When you cremate with Abbey Funeral Services, the ashes can be used to create ornate art or jewellery. This way, your legacy or the legacy of your loved one can live on through beautiful objects.

Cremation is more cost effective

When you cremate you don’t need to pay the typical funeral expenses, such as caskets, headstones, burial vaults, and embalming. Rather, you only need to cover the cremating process and the urn. Therefore, cremating is much less expensive than conventional funerals.

Cremating is better for the environment

Traditional burials use up a lot of resources, and the embalming fluid used to keep bodies looking fresh and lively can damage the environment. Therefore, cremating is a much more eco-friendly alternative to burying yourself or your loved one. If sustainability is a priority of yours, consider our green funerals for the most environmentally friendly option.

Green funerals for residents in Hildenborough

What is a Green Funeral?

Green funerals are the most natural way of burying a loved one and involve being buried in a more simply way. They focus on sustainability and being environmentally friendly, which usually means the coffin is made from wicker instead of heavy oak or mahogany and doesn’t have any metal fixtures or hinges that wouldn’t erode over time.

Green funerals are a more modern, but still wholesome and lovely way to say goodbye to a loved one. Many people tend to favour green funerals nowadays because they hold a number of advantages over traditional burial:

Preserving natural areas

Green funerals are designed to be as eco-friendly as possible. As the body naturally decomposes, the area around it becomes rich with nutrients that help plants grow happily and healthily. This brings food and shelter to animals of all shapes and sizes. Through our green funerals, you can help death create new life.

Conserving natural resources

Every year in the UK, thousands of tons of wood and concrete are used every year for fancy caskets and burial vaults. When you choose our green funerals, you use as little material as possible without creating any waste. Many of our clients prefer only covering their loved one in a shroud, rather than placing him or her in a coffin. This helps decomposition and conserves even more resources.

Eliminating hazardous chemicals

One of the more damaging aspects of funerals are the embalming fluids used to keep the body looking lively. They use harmful chemicals like formaldehyde, which is known to cause cancer. You can eliminate all these chemicals with green funerals.

Lower cost

Decorated caskets and burial vaults make the prices of traditional funerals stack up quickly. Because of our green funerals’ simplicity, you can avoid all these fees. Green funerals can be up to or over £1,000 cheaper than conventional ones.

Simplicity

Many people are attracted to the simplicity of green funerals. The plain coffin or shroud and naturally buried body keeps the funeral minimalistic, giving it a unique air of elegance.

Funeral Plans Hildenborough

Funeral plans for residents in Hildenborough

At Abbey Funeral Services, we partner with Ecclesiastical Planning Services to ensure your funeral is handled with the proper care needed. You can choose one of four funeral plans if you’d like:

The Abbey Unattended Funeral Plan
The Abbey Simple Plan
The Abbey Traditional Plan
The Abbey Traditional Plus Plan

Many people prefer our funeral plans to creating a custom funeral service with us. They hold two main benefits, which are:

Consideration for loved ones

Your thoughtfulness will alleviate your mourning family of the financial burden and any concerns they may have regarding your funeral arrangements at a difficult time. You also have the assurance that the preparations you specify, such as the style of funeral, the location, the music, the readings, and even the flowers, will be carried out just as you like. Planning ahead of time brings peace of mind to you and your loved ones.

Financial security

One of the primary reasons we advise you to purchase one of our funeral plans is that they give excellent financial protection for your money. For added peace of mind, all plan funds are maintained in whole life assurance policies. The prices of custom funerals tend to stack up quickly. You can avoid these unforeseen fees with our funeral plans.

Abbey Funeral Services for residents in Hildenborough

Hildenborough has a few lovely locations to hold a funeral, however, we suggest St. John’s church. This beautiful church is perfect for our funeral services.

If you’d like to have your funeral outside a church, you’re more than welcome to. Please let us know and we’ll organise the location to you and your family’s desire.

Funeral FAQs

1. Why choose Abbey Funeral Services?

We commit ourselves to you and your family at Abbey Funeral Services. We've earned a reputation as community leaders in over 40 years of service because we always guarantee that your funeral is handled with decency and care.

The husband-and-wife founders of our family-run firm are former Presidents of the Society of Allied and Independent Funeral Directors, and the keys to our service have been passed down to their daughter.

2. How much do funerals cost in Hildenborough?

The prices of funerals vary significantly based on what you’d like to have. Service costs make up a large portion of funeral costs in Hildenborough, and they can range upwards of £2,000. Learn more about our prices here.

3. How much do cremations cost in Hildenborough?

Cremation is significantly less expensive than traditional burials. At Abbey Funeral Services, we offer a direct-to-cremator service for £1,800. We also provide unattended cremations for £2,450. The crematoriums we use are the Kent & Sussex Crematorium and the Vinters Park Crematorium in Maidstone. Learn more about our cremation prices here.