A fitting tribute to Sir Donald Sinden

Experiences of a coffineer - Part 11

A fitting tribute to Sir Donald Sinden OBE

Last week the world lost one it's finest actors of screen and stage. Sir Donald Sinden died at home at the age of 90 following a prolonged battle with cancer.

The national press has given praise for his extensive work and his contribution to british acting. They have fully covered his career and extolled his acting successes over the past 7 decades. 

Sir Donald will be remembered for his various stage appearances from comedy (There's a girl in my soup, 1966 - 1973) to various Shakespearean characters, in numerous film productions and more recently playing alongside Martin Shaw in BBC's Judge John Deed.

Today, Sir Donald's funeral service was held at a small village church miles from the busy west end where he was a regular visitor. Friends and family gathered at St John the Baptist in Wittersham, near Tenterden in Kent to say farewell to the great man.

The Sindens are neighbours of ours and Sir Donald was a very popular and highly respected member of our community. Locally he will be remembered for his happy manner and friendly smiles in the High Street of Tenterden and surrounding villages. Quite often I would hear his distinctive voice booming across the aisles of our local Waitrose as he chatted with staff and other customers alike. 

Sir Donald was also a supporter of local arts - he was patron of the Barn Theatre Company based at the Ellen Terry Barn Theatre at Smallhythe Place and supporter of Homewood School drama department who named their theatre after him.

He also supported the local community in many other ways. I remember well, one year, running into Donald at Stone village fair where he was master of ceremonies and resident judge and prize awarder - in his best shakespearean theatrical voice presiding over best victoria sponge and largest marrow. A delight to the ears!

As such, we were delighted to be asked by his son, actor and director, Marc Sinden if we could provide a hand painted Curve Coffin for Sir Donald in the distinctive "Salmon and Cucumber" colours of the Garrick Club in London which Sir Donald frequented.

The Curve Coffin in Garrick Club colours

The Garrick Club flag flies at half mast

We are delighted that the story was covered by local press:

Dame Judi Dench joins mourners at Wittersham church at funeral service for actor Sir Donald Sinden

For more information about the Curve Coffin please visit www.wealdencoffins.co.uk

Experiences of a coffineer - Part 10

A really useful trip to the crematorium

It's quite a few months since we had our first cremation. In order to prove our suitability, we needed to "crem test" our Curve coffin and so, with a little negotiation, arranged a suitable date with a very nice lady at Mortlake Crematorium in South West London.

Via a local firm of FDs, we agreed to donate one of our hand-painted Curve coffins for a local man whose family could not afford to fund his funeral - we were delighted that we could help out in this small way and not just waste one of our beautiful coffins on an empty burning. 

Since the deceased gentleman was originally from South Africa, we offered to decorate the coffin with an Agapanthus design (African Lilly). 

             Pallbearers carrying a hand-painted Curve coffin into Mortlake Crematorium

We've had a few comments since to say that our beautiful coffins are far too good to burn, but then again, they are probably too good to stick in the ground as well and this is the nature of the business that we're in - creating beautiful, hand painted coffins to help people celebrate the lives of their lost ones.

But in this day and age of ecological awareness, just how "green" is the cremation process?

The answer, of course, primarily depends on the age of the cremator (or more accurately how modern it is) and therefore how efficiently it operates. Modern cremators operate far more efficiently and cleanly than older ones.

Modern cremators use better technology than their predecessors. The technology within a modern crematorium ensures all exhaust gasses are re-ignited to ensure that the discharges to the atmosphere are kept to a minimum. Modern crematoriums should operate with no odour, no smoke, and no noise emitted to the environment around it – in fact, they are cleaner burning than most wood burners operating in domestic homes. 

Cremation does use scarce energy resources (natural gas) and contributes to the production of greenhouse gases. However modern, properly operated crematoria do minimise this impact. And, as each cremation is completed, heat is retained in the bricks of the cremator. Therefore, the more cremations that take place in a day, the more efficient the cremator becomes.

The beauty of a solid wood coffin is that it actually aids the cremation process by adding to the fuel and thus reducing the amount of gas required to cremate the body.

Then there is the little considered benefit of recycling natural resources.

Following the cremation of a deceased person the ashes are likely to contain metals, such as items used in the construction of the coffin and, frequently, orthopaedic implants, such as hip and knee replacement joints or metal braces used in repairing broken bones. 

In the past these metals were removed from the ashes and buried within the grounds of the crematorium. Nowadays, and this is certainly the case at Mortlake, these metals are often collected and recycled - the money raised is donated to national or local bereavement Charities, such as CRUSE, Macmillan, SANDS and Cancer Research.

So, before you bury Uncle Bob or Aunty Joan, you might just want to consider how much metal they've got inside of them and whether it would be better for the environment to recycle these parts for future use.

For more information about the Curve coffin please visit www.wealdencoffins.co.uk, find us Facebook or follow us on Twitter @wealdencoffins

Experiences of a coffineer - Part 7

The art of death

Isn't it a shame that in this day and age of creativity and innovation there seems to be little progress in the design of coffins?


In fact you could say that coffin design (or manufacture at least) has taken a step backwards in the UK where the majority of sales today are of chipboard coffins with wood-effect plastic veneer or sticky back plastic in Blue Peter parlance.

Of course there are exceptions and I must say that I do like many of the woven willow coffins as well as the natural wool coffin from Hainsworth, both of which provide softer, more aesthetic options - but it's such a shame that many families are "led" down the chipboard coffin route simply for monetary reasons.

When we first designed The Curve coffin we knew we had something special -  after all there aren't any other wooden coffins with a curved profile on the market - but with an artistic hand painted, creative finish we think that we've moved coffin design into a whole new era.

Our goal is to produce beautiful works of art for each and every coffin that we make.

At the moment we have a hand-painted Curve coffin on display at the Wealden Makers' Gallery in Tenterden, Kent

The coffin is a full sized adult coffin with a beautiful artistic design created by my talented partner, Holly. It has a rubbed-back, rustic feel duck egg base coat with a stunning, stylised single dove on the top as the main image and a beautiful twisted vine border running long the edge.

I'm pleased to say that we've had great feedback from visitors to the gallery with many positive comments.

Also at the gallery is a variety of art from Tenterden Makers artists and regular exhibiting guests including photography, ceramics, felting, paintings and mosaics. For more information about the artists please see www.tenterdenmakers.com

For more information about our beautiful coffins please go to www.wealdencoffins.co.uk