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Family-owned funeral directors Arthur C Towner has recently celebrated 145 years in business.
The business, which has three branches in the Hastings and Bexhill area, was founded in St Leonards in 1875 by the great-grandfather of the current managing director Edward Towner.
Since then it has opened its Battle office and chapel of rest in 1995 and its Bexhill office and chapel of rest – in Station Road – was opened in 1999.
Having later outgrown the Station Road premises, in 2013 the firm moved to its new funeral home, Audley House, in Albert Road, Bexhill.
Since June 2010 it has also become the only remaining local, independent, family owned funeral directors in the Hastings, St Leonards, Bexhill and Battle area.
Edward Towner, speaking to the Hastings and St Leonard Observer, said: “The funeral business has changed over the years. Back in 1875 most funeral firms were small, family companies. Since then, and certainly over the 45 years that I have been at Towners, we have seen the larger national and international companies moving in and taking over the small, local firms.
“We are the last of the local, family owned funeral directors from the 19th century in the whole of Hastings, Bexhill and Battle. We are part of the local community and for many families in this area, generations of my family have served generations of theirs.”
