Funeral home joins Jubilee festivities
Ian Hazel Funerals of Sutton Coldfield helped the local community of Little Aston celebrate the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee by entering a coffin-based rowing boat into a Jubilee boat pageant.
In spite of Little Aston’s landlocked location, the boat pageant was organised to rival HRH’s on the Thames, some 120 miles south east.
Organiser of the event Emma Paxton said of the pageant: “No sea legs will be required; however we’ll see legs of the crew as they walk their boats.”
Altogether 38 boats, including Ian Hazel Funerals’ coffin ‘vessel’, assembled at the local parish church for the half mile procession to the local recreation ground.
Ian Hazel remarked: “It was great fun to be involved in an event to mark such a historic occasion as the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. When first approached I was a little apprehensive as to how the public would take to a coffin being turned into a rowing boat, but decided that if we introduced some humour into it, it would be accepted in the true spirit of the event.
“In order to make light of the fact that it was a coffin we illustrated it with humorous slogans such as: ‘With fuel prices on the increase and set to get worse, we decided to invest in this eco-friendly hearse.’ The public luckily saw the funny side to what we created and gave us many praises for being so inventive.”
Image: Ian and his daughter, Amy, in the coffin boat.