History
1945
History
History
In 1945 George Brooke began his apprenticeship as a joiner with Walter West Joiners & Undertakers leaving in 1948 to work for Mr. Stanley Field of Charles Field, Battye Street, partly because Mr. Field was not a well man.
George was to be found running the business at 21 years of age. George left and began business on his own as a joiner and undertaker, and it wasn’t until eight years later that George returned to Stanley Field and took over the business. He met his wife, Audrey and they married in 1961. He continued to build up the business and by 1974 had 23 men working for him. By this time George and Audrey had three children – Neil, Helen and Judith.
Audrey and George decided that in order to offer a service to bereaved families they would have to let the joinery/building side of the business go, and concentrate on Funeral directing. Audrey worked from home providing the back up – ‘manning’ the phone, typing the necessary documents and baking for the funeral teas.
George worked all the hours he could, to be able to afford to buy and build the Chapel of Rest at Battye Street, which was the first privately owned Chapel of Rest in Dewsbury.