Northamptonshire family-run funeral director celebrates serving local community for four decades

Jack Warwick Funeral Service has been supporting families in Kettering, Corby, Wellingborough and the surrounding areas for forty years.

The eponymous founder had started out as a funeral director in Kettering in the early 1960s, when in 1985 Jack and his wife Margaret established Jack Warwick Funeral Service in Wallis Road – where it continues to operate from today.

In 1988 they extended the business into London Road creating a ‘tea room’ to offer onsite funeral catering facilities.

A spokesman for the company said: “Over the years Jack Warwick’s has evolved to reflect the changing needs of local families who want more choice, flexibility and personalised funerals that celebrate and reflect the individuality of their loved one’s life.

"Jack Warwick’s have also seen an increase in requests for direct cremations and offer a simple, dignified, local and value unattended cremation service with or without an accompanied celebration of life or memorial service.

"It remains an independent and family-run firm, serving the local community with the team at Jack Warwick’s maintaining and respecting the same values and standards of care offered by Mr Warwick from the day he started the business 40 years ago.”

Following Jack Warwick’s retirement from the family business in the early 2000s, Jack’s daughter and son-in-law Julie and Peter Smeathers successfully ran the business for many years, along with Jack’s daughter-in-law Jackie Warwick.

In 2016, Lloyd Woodhouse and his brother-in-law Daniel Halls took over the day to day running of the business. In 2024, Jack Warwick’s opened a second funeral home in central Wellingborough in a renovated 18th Century Georgian Coach House with its own mortuary, chapel and catering facilities.

Over the decades the business has seen the funeral sector evolve with more online direct cremations and fewer locally-owned providers.

A spokesman said: “Jack Warwick’s is committed to remaining an independent and local family-run funeral firm for the next forty years and beyond.

“Lloyd and Daniel believe that as a small, dedicated team with collectively over 50 years experience in the funeral industry they offer an unrivalled, exceptional, professional and compassionate service with continuity of care from the initial contact all the way through to the funeral and beyond.”