A family-run funeral service in Ipswich has been named one of the best in the UK, with its staff assessed as “lovely, gentle and thoughtful”.

Farthing Funeral Service has won a top place in the Good Funeral Guide, a social enterprise company dedicated to representing the interests of dying and bereaved people.

Charles Cowling, author of the guide, said: “The team at Farthing Funeral Service are unsung heroes doing a magnificent job, and the people of Suffolk deserve to know this.”

Farthing Funeral Service has branches in Ipswich, Felixstowe and Debenham and it is run by Luke Farthing.

Mr Farthing joined the Ipswich office in 1985, along with his eldest brother, Robert.

He said: “We are delighted to have been recognised in this way. We firmly believe that it is important to be able to make the way you say farewell to the one you love as individual and personal as you choose.”

The full Good Funeral Guide review can be found here.