R Banks & Son was founded in 1921 by Richard Banks, growing out of a combined taxi and funeral service business. Clifford Halliwell acquired the firm in the 1960s, and it remains family-run today under Managing Director Brian Halliwell M.B.I.E Dip F.D, alongside his daughter Carina Halliwell Dip F.D, describing itself as the largest independent funeral director in the Wigan area.
The group now operates around a dozen funeral homes across Wigan, Leigh, Chorley and the surrounding boroughs, including this Templeton Lodge branch in Platt Bridge. Services include funeral arrangement and planning, help with death registration, pre-paid Golden Charter funeral plans, monumental masonry with granite headstones, and an online shop for caskets, urns and keepsakes, backed by a 24/7, 365-day on-call service.
A distinctive feature of the business is its historic funeral fleet, which includes a Rolls Royce Silver Wraith hearse formerly used by Winston Churchill alongside a fleet of Jaguar hearses, reflecting the firm's long multi-generational history in the area.
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