Help and Advice When Choosing a Headstone

Our premises have a wide range of memorial designs which you will be invited to look through to help make a final choice. However we appreciate that some customers are more comfortable in making such decisions in their home environment. Although our core work takes place in Manchester City Council cemeteries, we do work across the North West and can offer home visits within twenty miles of Manchester.

We will show you samples of memorials, ornamentation, lettering, verses and images. You can of course have a custom made headstone design and may have your own verses and personal images in mind. We will guide you on this visit as to what lettering goes with what material, what suits laser etching and what is better for photo plaques and so on. We can also discuss the traditional methods, should you wish for hand carved lettering for example. If, you would like to visit our workshop and feel and touch the materials before making a final decision you are welcome to.

Once you have decided upon your requirements, we will wherever possible give a quote straight away, but if that is not possible will endeavour to do so within a couple of days. There is no obligation for you to have the work done by us, but you must be aware we can only honour the initial price quoted for three months.

Once you have paid a deposit, which must be a minimum of £100 plus cemetery charges, we will begin to draw up the designs and provide you with an illustration which includes the inscription. If your choice of your memorial is a bespoke design we may also choose to provide you with working drawings illustrating the design/dimensions of the memorial for your approval and signing off before the memorial goes into production. The designs can be sent to you by email or in the post and we are happy to discuss any queries. We understand that this is a big decision for you and that the process should not be unnecessarily rushed, we will go along with your pace. Once you are happy with the final design, it is signed off by both parties and we get to work.

When the memorial is engraved the final balance is due, usually within a fortnight. You can come to the yard to view it if you wish, or we can email you photographs. In terms of time from enquiry to installation, the minimum is usually around four to six weeks, but for a bespoke design it can be up to four months. Other factors can come into account such as when the burial took place. It is usually advisable to wait six months until the ground has fully settled, although this is not always the case. We will be able to advise on this once we know the cemetery and plot location.

At Alberti, Lupton & Co we take pride in our work and personal service. We appreciate how difficult a time it is for you, but hope the fixing of a memorial at your loved ones plot can help bring some comfort and provide you with somewhere to commemorate their life and be a big part in the healing process.