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Out shopping the other day a funeral passed by it was a horse drawn carriage and looked very majestic. No one took much notice so it got me thinking! can you remember when if a funeral passed people would bow there heads and men would remove hat's. The street that the person lived on would have a collection for flower's and not forgetting to draw your curtains

Has all this now gone?

ps This was the first time in all my 60plus years that I have seen a funeral with a horse and carriage (don't tell anyone)

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For some reason people like the 'Krays' seem to keep the tradition going,

ANYWAY Mary as the 1st post ive read today,Thanks' thats cheered me right up............ :)

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Much better than the football

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It has been quite a few years since I saw the first of these kind of funeral processions. I was going to say that, I thought it must have been someone important, but then I realised, we are all important aren't we, just not all as wealthy as each other. As it is, these kinds of funerals are gaining popularity in our neck of the woods, It is not unusual to see them these days. Sometimes it is Black or White horses and Hearse. They look impressive, but it's a ride I will do my very best to avoid for my self for as long as possible. :huh:

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My cousins are funeral directors and when the older one died a few years ago he had the black horses and carriage. It was good to see, and his son walked in front, from their house to the church.

I remember when an ex boyfriend died in an RTA, in the 1970's, and at the church as the hearse arrived a passing policeman stopped, removed his helmet and saluted as they carried the coffin inside.

I think generally folk still show respect, as I have noticed very few overtake a hearse, and will allow them through on roundabouts, or out of side roads, perhaps mindful that their turn will come one day?

Modes of travel for the last journey are getting quite varied now. I remember seeing a documentary about one for bikers a while back, with the coffin being transported on a modified sidecar. Personally when my time comes I'd like a horse affair, but it will probably be on a farm cart!!

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I think funerals can get very self indulgent for families etc. It used to be, and probably still is, a regulation that if someone in H.M. services uniform saw a funeral, then a salute had to be given. The best I heard of was one for a Morris Dancer. Apparently all the guests got squiffy and performed a Morris Dance on the lost one's grave. Great fun I understand! As for the other customs, if you see the curtains of a house drawn these days, it's probably to keep the sun off the tele' screen. Mark Twain has written that if a funeral took place in the frozen north, the ground was so hard that the legs of the body were 'sharpened' to a point and was then driven into the ground as with a nail. I can't help thinking this could be an untruth!

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Saw a story recently about an old fella who loved his motorbike, and for his funeral he was dressed in his biking gear, sat on his bike, inside a glass case. This was towed through the streets to his funeral.

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At my dad's funeral, we travelled in one of those long, silver-grey Rolls Royces which accommodate several mourners. The progress was very stately and genteel on the way to the funeral.

On the return journey, I'm not sure if the driver was bored or annoyed but he had his foot permanently to the floor and was flinging that Rolls around corners like a boy racer in a car park. Never realised a Roller could handle in that way.

Like something out of a Benny Hill sketch.

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I look on the body as waste pure and simple. Therefore I want my own funeral to be done as cheaply as possible. I even made sure the last van I bought 2014 was a nice shade of black. I have also tried to acquire one of those ex government foldup cardboard coffins that used to be stored Chalfont Drive in case of nuclear attack.

All money saved to be spent on a knees up for the folks who attend.

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There was the case where a hearse was going up a hill so steep the coffin slid out of the back door and shot down the hill and through the window of a chemist's shop. The corpse sat up and said, 'Have you got owt' to stop me coffin'?

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My burial plot is next to my late wife in Canada. I told my current wife to just FedEx me up there in a FedEx box if I go before her. Save a pile of money and I'd get to ride in the cargo hold.

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My funeral is all organised and paid for a very simple affair.I got the cheapest coffin I could find, chipboard cheaper than cardboard believe it or not,there will be no service as I don't believe anymore and it will be a cremation of course and my ashes taken out in a boat in to the bay and scattered.I don't have any family or close friends so its all very simple with an all up cost of $3500.

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been to quite a few biker funerals where they have had the motorbike and side car outfit there was one last friday that i did not go to but was told by several people that the hearse did in excess of 70 mph in verious plases the funeral director rode pillion and i am told was holding his top hat on most of the way the deceased was in his biker leathers and his pipe helmet were also placed in his coffin .

i have always said that i want a horse drawn cart to take me on my last rideyes i doo mean the steptoe type cart not the hearseno flowers but toys to be donated to a childrens charity. my other wish is for a humanist to give my eulagy nothing religius in any way

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Bazza 123 (#15), you state that you don't have any family or close friends. Well, I don't think that this is the case because when you first signed into Nottstalgia you became part of our family and everyone on here is your friend. :Friends:hellothere

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I would love a 'VIKING Funeral,'pushed off the steps of 'victoria Embankment' in a burning boat, i know enough people who would light the fire.

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Perhaps this should go under the did you know thread, but is relevant here:

Did you know that coffins originally represented boats? Originally the dead were sent down the river in a boat, but also in burial, as an aid to crossing the river Styx, on the journey to Hades, which was also why the dead were buried with coins on their eyes or in their mouth in order to pay the ferryman Charon.

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I would love a 'VIKING Funeral,'pushed off the steps of 'victoria Embankment' in a burning boat, i know enough people who would light the fire.

But officials from the EU will probably come and put the fire out!

The EU now want to reduce/stop landfill of organic waste - does this mean no more burials?

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