Ken Gregory & Sons Funeral Directors

A local funeral director provided him with the opportunity to buy his hearse and limousine. Ken did so and became a carriage master for the local funeral directors, renting them out for weddings and special events.

It was at this point that a family friend asked him to carry out a funeral for his loved one. When the local funeral directors found out that Ken Gregory conducted a funeral on his own, they decided to boycott using his services and vehicles.

This served to be the motivation Ken needed to start his own funeral home. For the first few funerals that he conducted, Ken used a local venue in Tibshelf as a chapel of rest, while he found his footing.

Slowly and steadily his care, compassion and commitment to the local families started gaining attention. With the help of his wife Joyce, he then turned their home in Sutton-in-Ashfield into a funeral home in the late 1960s.

Hence Ken Gregory & Sons Funeral Directors began.

Ken and Joyce Gregory lived in their Sutton-in-Ashfield premises and worked day and night to ensure every family in their care received the utmost care and high quality service.

Just as they were starting out the family received bad news; their son and his girlfriend died in a motorbike accident, aged only 18. His son's funeral was one of the first Ken conducted from his own business.

This further reinforced his need to provide quality and compassionate funeral service to their community and local families. Ken was an active member of the community and was always happy to support his local people no matter what. His involvement and compassion eventually led him to becoming a Councillor for the Ashfield County Council.

Inspired by his father, Christopher Gregory and his wife Ann, opened the second funeral home in the late 1970s in Kirkby-in-Ashfield, where they also lived.

Starting of with nothing but a 'board on the street', the slowly and steadily nurtured the business to strength with the same values entrusted to them by their father; care, compassion and commitment to the local families.

They started out with a chapel of rest and garage, which they later on extended to house their beautiful midnight blue Mercedes fleet. After Chris and Ann moved off the site in 2000, their home was fully converted to a funeral home that you can now see.

Chris and Ann were keen catholic practitioners and active members of the community, with Chris particular enjoying music. They had four children, one of whom later on joined the family business in 2000.

Ken Gregory's other son Peter and his wife Helen, took over the Sutton-in-Ashfield funeral home in the late 1980s when he and his wife Joyce, moved off premises into their own bungalow.

It was here where they finally relaxed and pursued other leisure activities. Ken got a snooker table that he enjoyed playing and started playing his organ once again. Joyce on the other hand, loved entertaining family and friends for tea and Sunday lunches.

Meanwhile, Peter and Helen, along with their two children moved into the Sutton-in-Ashfield premises where they ran and continued to grow the business.

Peter was an active member and ambassador for the NAFD (National Association of the Funeral Directors) and strived to ensure that all Funeral Directors should work to hold the NAFD diploma.

He strongly supported the NAFD in their mission to bring all funeral directors together and regulate the industry to ensure high standards of funeral services are available at fair costs, which the business continues to be known for today.

To better help the people of Mansfield, Michael King who used to manage the Ken Gregory & Sons funeral home in the 1990s, used to rent the Mansfield Public Mortuary from the City Council.

In was then that the council decided that they no longer required a public mortuary and refused to rent another lease term. That site now exists in Mansfield as St Peters Retail Park today.

In light of these developments, the Gregory's decided to buy the new premises at 365 Nottingham Road on 25 March 2000; which is where they are still located today.

This funeral home was opened by Dr Nigel Chapman the Coroner of Nottinghamshire. Michael King retired from the business a few years later.

The funeral home had a mortuary, which was later on moved to the Sutton-in-Ashfield funeral home in a new purposed made room for families to use to dress their loved ones. This new purpose made building also has a large training/conference room.

In 2011, Chris and Peter Gregory agreed join forced with Dignity where they continued to work as consultants, ensuring the values that are true to them are passed on and still hold true today; care, compassion, commitment to local communities and ensuring quality service are available at a fair price.

Opened in 2016, this is our most recent Ken Gregory & Sons funeral home in Nottinghamshire. The opening ceremony held, on 7th September 2016, was conducted by the Mayor of Gelding, Sandra Barnes and was attended by the local crematoria/ cemetery. The area manager of the funeral home at the time was none other that Simon Gregory, grandson of Ken Gregory.

Ken Gregory & Sons have conducted some notable funerals of well known and cherished members of the local community.

On 11 April 2014, Ken Gregory & Sons Funeral Directors in Sutton-in-Ashfield conducted a funeral for the president of the Ashfield chapter of the bikers club Hells Angel, Neil Mott.

Around 1,500 bikers from around the world arrived for the funeral and led the cortege for the funeral, before heading off to the A38 for a ride in his memory. The service and burial was held at Sutton Cemetery.