Lockdown career change from construction to grave tending helps Leighton Buzzard families honour their loved ones

A family looking for a new sense of purpose after the pandemic has set up a business clearing and cleaning gravestones.

Andy Stephenson started Memories in 2022 and the business is now going from strength to strength with work on graves in Leighton Buzzard and surrounding areas.

And he has drafted in wife Chris, son Mark and granddaughter Willow, aged three, who has become a dab hand at watering.

Before 2020 Andy ran a construction labour agency, while Chris has just retired after 25 years in SEN education, ending as principal of a Federation. Mark still works as a SEN teacher when he’s not helping out the family business.

“Coming out of Covid, I had been looking for something to do with my life”, explained Andy, “but I could only come up with the things I didn’t want to do! However, a random Facebook post from a grave tender changed all that. Grave tending is well established in certain regions of the UK but not here.

"The family had always maintained my grandparents’ graves, so I had a basic idea of what was involved, but the more I looked into it, the more and more boxes it ticked.”

Apart from the tending and cleaning, Memories also does re-lettering of inscriptions where the paint has faded away, has regular maintenance contracts to keep graves in tip-top condition and lays flowers on special occasions when the client is unable to do it themselves. Memories also re-stains memorial benches, re-levels sunken graves and prunes memorial trees and shrubs.

The concept is now gaining traction. “The main hurdle to be overcome was explaining what we do,” said Andy, “but the results are so stunning, when you see the before and after photos, that they speak for themselves.

“It’s also helped that I’ve had great support from the Association of Grave Tenders, of which we are proud members, and all the local Funeral Directors, who have been so welcoming and helpful.”

Chris is involved in the back office admin and bookkeeping but doesn’t mind getting her hands dirty when deadlines are tight. She also does the posies and wreaths which are left at the grave after a job is successfully completed.

Mark has a natural gift as a painter and decorator, so with his steady hand, he does all the free-hand painting work on the intricate inscriptions or the marble work, where an eye for detail is essential. The final member of the team is Willow. Chris said: “She likes to come out with us, loves to use the watering can and do all the water spraying, although it’s guaranteed that a good amount of the spraying will be aimed at us, rather than the grave!”

The oldest memorial Memories has so far worked on was paid for by Maud, Countess de la Warr in 1909, after she was in a car being driven her chauffeur which killed a young boy in Whitchurch, Bucks.

Memories can be contacted on 07410 976188 or via their website.