By Mary Carmichael
Tim Ward has some advice for fellow car enthusiasts: “Stay away from the online car auction sites if you are partaking in the odd snifter,” he says sagely.
It’s advice the West Midlands funeral director hasn’t always been good at following though, much to the frustration of his long-suffering wife Kay. “I’ve been tempted into buying an E-type Jag, a few MGBs and even a couple of Lambrettas,” he confesses. “I’d promised not to do it again.”
However, Ward convinced himself he might get away with another purchase if it somehow related to his work and, after a couple too many, he bid on a 1968 Morris Minor Traveller, which he thought might make an interesting hearse.
“It didn’t look too bad in the pictures,” he says. “Previous projects have mainly arrived in bits, and it just looked as though it had to be put back together.”
The reality turned out to be rather different with holes and rust everywhere and Shaun Carroll, Ward’s ‘partner in crime’ in vehicle-related ventures suggested they scrap it. Carroll is also the mechanic who looks after the fleet of Ward’s business, S. Webb & Son Funeral Directors of Wednesbury, so he does know his stuff, however Ward wasn’t listening: “I realised I really shouldn’t have bought it,” he says. “But once I had, I felt a responsibility to do my best by it.”
Four years of painstaking and often frustrating work, and the restored vehicle, now named Edith Annie, after his grandmother and great grandmother, is finally ready to be unveiled. And she’s already getting attention. Ward took the hearse down to a local cemetery, all kitted out for a photoshoot. On the way back, he got a big thumbs-up from a passer-by. “He had a big beaming grin on his face – even though we had a coffin and flowers on board,” laughs Webb. “That’s just the kind of person we want to appeal to.”
Ward’s company was founded by his great grandfather Sidney Webb in 1894 as Webb & Son. Sid’s son died but his son-in-law Fred Ward joined, and the family connection passed down on the Ward side to Tim’s father and then to Tim, and his brothers Johnathan, Toby and Sandy. Unfortunately, Johnathan passed away last year but the next generation is already on board through Webb’s son and daughter-in-law. His 12-year-old grandson Archie has already asked when he can start working there too. In fact, all but two of the company staff are members of the Ward family.
The company has a satellite office in Darleston, as well as its main premises and a carriage-masters business. They do around two funerals a day, and pride themselves on attention to detail. “We don’t want to conquer the world,” says Ward. “We just want to do right by the people of the Black Country.”
Webb really has promised Kay that Edith Annie is his last venture, but he confesses that there might be one exception: “If I spot a three wheel Lambretta that I can convert to a hearse,” he laughs. “I can’t promise I’ll be able to resist!”
