A.W. Lymn Appoints First Memorial Parks Manager as Regional Company Expansion Accelerates

Award-winning family-run funeral directors A.W. Lymn The Family Funeral Service has appointed its first Memorial Parks Manager to oversee the business’s West Midlands and East Midlands’ growing operations.

The independent family business is this year officially launching its memorial parks brand, bringing together its purpose-built crematoria, cemeteries and memorial landscapes under one trusted name.

And as the 118-year-old company continues to expand and develop its service offering to families in its care at pace, it has appointed Andy Johnson – who has worked with the business for more than two decades – to oversee its Hammerwich Crematorium and Cemetery in Burntwood and its brand new memorial park in Calverton, Nottinghamshire.

Andy has known the Lymn Rose family since attending school with Managing Director Matthew and has worked throughout his career in marketing and business management as a casual driver-bearer for the funeral business.

His 12-month plan for the newly refurbished eight acre Hammerwich site, where the business has recently spent more than £350k refitting the crematorium and improving the outdoor flow of the cemetery with brand new car parking, canopy for large funerals and top of the range audio visual equipment for services, is to increase the number of services conducted threefold.

Andy said: “I’m so happy to be officially stepping into a management position with the family business I’ve known so well for so much of my career. Having had experience in a casual capacity with the driver-bearer team on funerals for decades, I know exactly how the family thinks and exactly how to uphold their values and best service practices.

“The goal at Hammerwich is to really draw attention to the incredible, brand new facilities the company has invested in in the last 12 months, including our ambient lighting which can be personalised to reflect a favourite colour, to our huge new canopy outside, to our state-of-the-art speaker system and screens, plus how we’ve more than doubled the amount of parking space. We aim to increase the amount of services conducted in our chapel by three times by the end of this year.”

Andy, who said one of his favourite parts of his new job was being outside in the beautifully peaceful setting of Hammerwich, located right next to Chasewater Country Park, added that he wanted to broaden the offering on site to more of the local community. He said: “We also want to open up our refurbished chapel space to local churches, community groups and other organisations who might need a bright, well equipped location for their services or meetings, so we’re encouraging those who’d like to have a look around or a personal tour to get in touch.”

Alongside his role at Hammerwich, Andy will also be overseeing the project development of A.W. Lymn’s first ever family-owned Nottinghamshire cemetery and barrows site in George’s Lane, Calverton – to be known as Nottinghamshire Memorial Park. The barrows’ construction is just one of the ways the award-winning funeral directors is expanding its offering to those it serves across the East Midlands, creating an alternative to a traditional burial and will form part of a 27-acre cemetery owned by A.W. Lymn.

The natural-looking barrows will be carefully designed in conjunction with Sacred Stones Ltd – the world’s first and only barrow design and construction company – and they will contain niches for cremated remains to be placed within.

Managing Director and fifth generation at A.W. Lymn, Matthew Lymn Rose, added: “It’s a pleasure – and also a long-time-in-the-making success story – to officially welcome Andy to the senior team at our family business. Having known and employed Andy on a causal basis for so long, it made complete sense when this new position emerged for him to be first in line for consideration, given his successful background in marketing and business operations and his inside knowledge of our core values and mission.

“We’re thrilled to have Andy on board leading our Memorial Parks and we look forward to seeing him flourish in his new role as we continue to invest in, nurture and grow this new arm of the business – always with the central aim of best serving the families who trust us with their funeral planning.”

A.W. Lymn was established in Nottingham in 1907 and has grown to become one of the UK’s largest independent funeral directors, operating 25 branches across the region. Having recently acquired M.A. Mills and expanded into Leicestershire and Staffordshire, it continues to grow its reach and network of talented funeral directors supporting people in their time of utmost need.