When Stan, the grandson of the founder Thomas Cribb, commenced work with the family business in 1942, his initial duties were the care and presentation of the stables and “his” Friesians became his first love.

The Dutch Friesian is the traditional funeral horse, more commonly known as the “Belgian Black”. When the horses were first imported to Britain there was no port in the Netherlands their home country, and so they were transported to Belgium to be exported on barges from Antwerp. They were then taken up the Thames to the Elephant and Castle area of London where they were sold at market every Thursday.

With the rest of Europe occupied by Germany the supply was cut off resulting in the motor hearse replacing the horse-drawn hearse in the late 1940s.

The family’s strong commitment to tradition and traditional customs culminated in the re-introduction of the Victorian horse-drawn hearse by T Cribb & Sons forty years later.

In the mid 1970s, Stan’s son Graham discovered an original 1900 ‘Washington’ glass hearse. This was lovingly restored to its former glory, and in keeping with his great grandfather’s strong belief that if you are going to do anything, only the best will do, no expense was spared in re-creating an exact replica of the harness, using old photographs and books as reference.

On an outing to Windsor Horse show Graham noticed a Dutch group showing Friesian horses. The next logical step was a trip to Holland to purchase a pair. Since the first trip we have purchased many