Five Generations

In the 1800’s the Halliday family were carpenters, general house maintenance, painters and decorators employing 8 people based at our current address on the High Street in Portishead. One day someone came into the woodworking shop and asked if it was possible to make a coffin, it was from that time that Frederick Halliday established the business as a funeral directors.

Records show that from 1880 F H Halliday and Son started carrying out full funeral services, providing horse drawn hearses and horse drawn mourning coaches, along with all the other provisions that you would expect from a funeral director. We still hold records written in long hand on every funeral, dating back to 1880, these are held in archives which are regularly used to look up past funeral arrangements.

Frederick Halliday passed the business to his son William (Bill) and in the late 1950’s his nephew Edward (Eddie) Lawrence came to join him along with his wife Kitty Lawrence. Eddie worked in the carpentry workshop and Kitty ran the office and decorating business.

Eddie’s son Glyn, joined the company after leaving school at the age of 17 and joined Eddie working in the carpentry workshop, learning all aspects of the trade from decorating to carpentry to bearing, then to becoming the funeral director.

Most recently, Glyn's son Harvey has joined the family business making him the fifth generation to follow in the family's footsteps. Having just finished his A levels with top grades, he decided he wanted to join the firm, bringing in young and modern views but learning the traditional roles a funeral director takes on.

In 1966 Bill Halliday retired and a limited company was then formed, owned by the Lawrence family.

 

Frederick Halliday

Frederick Halliday

Bill Halliday

Bill Halliday

Eddie Lawrence

Eddie Lawrence

Glyn Lawrence

Glyn Lawrence

Harvey Lawrence

Harvey Lawrence