A&C Tadman, Funeral Directors

Tadman Funeral Directors was originally conceived from the love of horses by Thomas Tadman, the great-great-great grandfather of the current director Tim Tadman.

In 1836 Thomas Tadman Snr. was a Horse Trainer/Trader in Norfolk. His son Thomas Jnr. became a horse trader in Bale, Norfolk, importing Friesian horses from Belgium. He trained them to pull glass hearses and then sold them to the funeral trade in the London area. When his first wife Phoebe died, he remarried a lady named Dorcas in 1858 and moved to London, where he slowly built a thriving funeral business. When he passed away, Dorcas and their sons, William Alfred and Richard, continued to build up the business.

After their deaths their son Alfred and his wife Annie continued to run the business successfully. He became very well known in the East End, not only as a Funeral Director, but also for his knowledge of Belgian Black Horses – these are the breed still used for horse drawn funerals today.

After Alfred William’s death in 1935, his widow Annie and sons, Alf and Con, added to the reputation of the family business. When Alf died in 1980, Con went into partnership with his son Gordon. Towards the latter part of the 1990s, Gordon’s wife Maureen and son, Tim, took up the reins. Gordon sadly passed away in 2006 and Tim now runs the funeral business.

A new branch was opened in Bethnal Green in 1998 followed soon after by one in Kings Langley, Hertfordshire. This branch is the venture of Tim Tadman, who lives locally.

This independent and family owned company offers a personal and professional service in the traditional manner to the local community and surrounding villages and towns. This includes Jaguar Hearse and limousines, specialist horse drawn funerals, a 24-hour service, arrangements made at home, private chapels of rest and repatriation to any country.