The Allcock family pictured above first arrived in Norfolk in 1958 when Terry Allcock (dad) was transferred from Bolton Wanderers to Norwich City. Dad's early years were spent growing up in Leeds, Colenso Terrace, Holbeck to be precise, a stones throw from Elland Road. His parents (my grandparents) moved to Blackpool circa 1950, his father John (Jack) was a linesman on the railways. Apparently the holiday season in Blackpool offered an increase in the amount of overtime available. Terry finished his schooling in Leeds and then moved to Blackpool at age 15. Barbara (mum) was a Blackpool girl and was born and raised in that seaside town. This, needless to say is where they met.

As a talented sportsman, when dad left school he was offered an apprenticeship with Bolton Wanderers. Making a first team debut at 17. He would spend the following 8 years at this famous old club. As an inside forward (midfield in today's parlay) dad learnt his craft from Nat Lofthouse no less, the lion of Vienna. During this time mum and dad were married at the Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Blackpool. They set up home in Bolton and in 1957 Mark the eldest sibling was born. However, with a squad of over 40 professionals and limited first team opportunities dad was transferred in 1958 to Norwich City for the princely sum of £8,000.

In Norwich dad was part of the giant killing 1959 Norwich City team that, as a third division team, reached the semi-final of the FA cup, only falling at the final hurdle to first division Luton Town after a replay. Dad spent the next 14 years, or thereabouts, as a player and then coach at Norwich City before a brief spell at Manchester City brought to an end his professional involvement with football. The remaining siblings arrived at fairly evenly spaced intervals during the baby boom years of the late fifties and early sixties. Peter the second eldest was born in 1959, Sharon 1960, Philip 1962 and finally Paul in 1966.

Dad spent some time in the motor trade after leaving the professional ranks of football and was a right old Arthur Daley in the Great Yarmouth area for around twenty years. Meanwhile mum packed us off to the catholic schools in Norwich for our primary education, and took herself off to teach swimming in various schools around the county. I neglected to mention in her Blackpool days mum was also a talented sports person. She was a champion swimmer, swam for Lancashire and had trials for the then Empire Games (The Commonwealth Games) before giving it all up to raise us lot. Nonetheless, she can still torpedo up and down a swimming pool faster than the rest of us put together. So we were schooled, up until age 11 at either, Willow Lane First School, later moving to Heigham Road to form the now St Johns First School and then on to St Johns Junior School on Dereham Road, which also later moved to Jessopp Road to become St Thomas More Middle School. All of these school changes occurred during the late sixties and early seventies. Philip should know as he managed to attend all four before the age of 11. Sharon was the only one of us to continue with a catholic education until school leaving age. She attended the Notre Dame school having won some sort of scholarship for passing the eleven plus, which removed the need to pay any school fees. The rest of us were unable to attend. I know one reason was that we were the wrong gender in those days, although I think Paul was given the option to attend in the later years of the seventies. Mark attended Thorpe Grammar School, having passed the 11 plus, leaving at 16 to try and forge out a professional career at Carrow Road with Norwich City just like his father. Peter went to Thorpe St Andrew Secondary Modern as did Philip. During Philip's time at Thorpe St Andrew the school decided to undergo further changes and amalgamate with Thorpe Grammar to become the Thorpe St Andrew Comprehensive School. It was this school that Paul attended for his secondary education.

That brings us to the time of life where families tend to diverge and go their separate ways. Indeed we have all forged our own careers and lives, but by some quirk of circumstances we all seem to be converging together once more.

Paul, shortly after leaving school, joined Peter Taylor Funeral Services on Unthank Road as a very young man. He learnt all aspects of the funeral trade from making the tea, grave digging and mortuary work to arranging, conducting and eventually managing the whole group of offices that was under the stewardship of Peter Taylor's. Terry (dad) had at this time recently sold his second hand car business in Great Yarmouth and Paul had hired dad as a part time funeral operative in his semi retirement (ha ha). Dad quickly picked up the rudiments of the funeral business including a little mortuary work. This was to stand us in good stead for the times ahead.

Towards the end of the nineties changes were afoot in the funeral industry and Peter Taylor's, as a large and very successful independent family concern, were a ripe target for certain larger conglomerates that were swallowing up independents across the country at that time. New employment contracts are part of any successful takeover, although some of the clauses within the one offered to Paul caused him a degree of concern in the way he thought a funeral business should operate. This led to a degree of uncertainty within his own mind as to his own position. Concurrently, Terry was hosting sponsors at Carrow Road on Norwich City match days and part of this inevitably involves talking to business people working in the Norfolk area. In casual conversation it became known that Falcon House (our present day premises) was for sale. Paul's uncomfortable feeling at work and the opportunity to possibly set up a new independent family funeral service seemed too good to be true. However, Paul and Terry would need to raise funds to be able to enter into such a large project. I would not say that they came cap-in-hand, as we as a family were aware of the situation as it was unfolding, so all siblings decided we would all do what we could financially to help get this project off the ground.

This is where the convergence begins. Funds were raised, a plan was put to Barclays Bank PLC and the rest, as they say, is history. Paul and Terry opened for business in May 2000 at Falcon House and before too long there was a need for clerical assistance from Alison, Paul's wife, and later they were also joined by Sharon. The girls have since learnt the ways of the funeral business and are now an irreplaceable part of the our team. Our silver Daimler cars were purchased in 2002 and Andrew Harrison was hired to act as a part-time driver bearer. Funeral numbers kept on increasing year on year without the need to reach out with costly advertising. Enter Philip, drafted in to run all things non funeral to allow Paul to do what he does best, serve the public in their time of need in the most caring and professional way.

I hope this gives you a little bit more of an insight into who we are. We feel that who we are is very much a part of the success of our business so far . Our ethos is that our family become yours for that short time when you need to arrange a funeral for a loved one.