A flood-hit funeral director has sold his business to a like-minded local operator.

On October 20 last year, funeral director Ian Moore could only watch on helplessly as his business - including his hearse - disappeared under five feet of water.

A year on, and Ian - the fifth generation to run Moore Bros Funeral Service in Framlingham - has joined forces with another local company to take the business into a new era.

When Storm Babet struck, Ian's premises were among many caught in the floods which engulfed the town.

Moore Bros' premises during Storm Babet (Image: Moore Bros) The floodwater couldn't get to the river as the road ditch was blocked and water was coming up through the sewers. Fram Tyres next door lost seven vehicles, he recalls.

Moores tried to move its vehicles to higher ground - between them they managed to get a van and two cars away.

"We didn't get our hearse - it came too quick," he says. "I just want to forget about it really. I had a funeral at 12.30 and I couldn't get out."

Susan Whymark, Mandy Porter and Ian Moore (Image: Lucy Taylor) The effects of the flood were devastating - and it would take a year to recover some of his losses through his insurance cover.

"It's been a long haul," admits Ian. " I was very low at the time. It takes it out of you. I lost everything I had."

This year - after the anguish and upheaval of the floods - Ian has joined Susan Whymark Funeral Service having sold his business to the Eye firm.

Moores' flooded premises in Woodbridge Road have been restored, and a new office - renovated by Ian's separate building business - has been created in the former Bradlaugh Electrical Services store in Fore Street.

(Image: Lucy Taylor) It has been named Moore House in honour of its family roots and is run by Mandy Porter who has worked for Susan since 2016.

Ian has known Susan Whymark - the purchaser's founder - for many years. She started her business from scratch 20 years ago, and operates from sites in Eye, Harleston and Diss.

"We didn't want it going in the wrong hands. I have lived here all my life and all my family have and I didn't want a national company coming in and spoiling it," explains Ian.

"You can sell to anybody really. The big ones they will come in and it will be like conveyor belt and I didn't want that."

(Image: Moore Bros)

Ian, 58, has been involved in the business for 42 years. He came from a family which combined trades as wheelwrights, funeral directors and builders and as a young lad he would polish the coffins.

After the flood, he set up his office temporarily in his accountant's office - Turner and Ellerby - as townspeople came together to help those whose businesses had been flooded.

Insurers advised him to stay at home, but Ian felt he couldn't let bereaved families down and kept going. After the flood, he conducted about 24 funerals before selling up to Susan. "It was manic," he says.

The last year has been stressful but "a lot of people helped me through it," he says.

Ian hit it off immediately with Mandy and the sale has meant he can continue to be involved in funerals without the added burden of running the business.

"This way I'm still helping with the job I love," he says. "I'm quite enjoying life now - I'm just getting used to it." 

Susan Whymark and Mandy Porter (Image: Lucy Taylor) Susan says she was hugely sympathetic to Ian's plight and wanted to help.

"Ian asked me if I would be interested in buying the business as there was no family succession,” she explains.

 “It was an easy decision to make - I have known Ian since my days working for a family-owned funeral home in Ipswich and from the last 20 years of my own business."

Independent funeral directors often work together locally and support each other with staff and vehicles, she explains.

"Ian and I come from the same place. We are both an independent and both family-run and you just want to carry on what his family has done and not have it go into a corporate business where people are just numbers."

(Image: Lucy Taylor)