Merriden House Funerals · Fairview · Since 1962
One family has answered this phone since 1962, three generations of it, with steady hands and plain prices. You do not have to decide anything tonight.
01
We will ask gently for their name and yours and where they are. Then we tell you exactly what happens next.
02
Home, hospital or care facility: we come the same night, usually within 90 minutes, and bring the person who has died into our care.
03
The paperwork is tomorrow's job, and so are the notices and the decisions. Tomorrow we sit down together over tea and go at your pace.
A funeral here comes in one of three complete forms, each with one figure and a full list of what that figure covers. We do not hide fees inside packages. That is not how this house works.
$1,795
One figure, complete
For families who want the simplest path, with no service held here and every practical thing handled completely.
$3,950
One figure, complete
A full farewell in our chapel and then cremation, which is the shape most Fairview families choose.
$6,850
One figure, complete
The traditional order of things, from a private goodbye through the service to the burial, with every step in our care.
The figures above leave out the cemetery's own interment fee, monuments, newspaper notices and flowers beyond our standard arrangement. Those costs are shown to you in writing before you decide anything. Our full General Price List is yours the moment you ask for it, and you can ask without giving a name or a number.
For honest comparison, the national median cost of a funeral with viewing and burial runs around $8,300. Ours is $6,850 for the same timber and the same care, and that figure is the whole of it.
A funeral should cost what it costs. A stranger should not get to decide what your grief is worth.
Ruth Merriden · third-generation funeral director
Dad died at ten past two in the morning and David answered on the third ring. He was at the house by three, and he called Dad by his first name the whole time. I will never forget that.
Ruth gave us two hours at the table and never once looked at the clock. The figure she quoted at that table was the figure on the invoice, to the dollar.
Ellen printed the order of service twice because she thought Mum's name deserved the heavier paper. Nobody would ever have known. That's the kind of house this is.
Merriden House is a 1920s brick house that was here, behind the same clipped hedges, before most of Fairview was built. Inside is a 90-seat chapel with two viewing rooms beside it, and an arrangement room where the tea is poured before the papers come out.
Every room is yours to see. Come any afternoon unannounced, look at whatever you like without deciding anything, and the kettle is generally on.
Half the calls we take are from people planning for themselves, clear-eyed and unhurried, often over a second cup of tea. You record your wishes with us and hold today's price in writing, and your family is left with one number to call.
Margaret “Peg” Aldous
1938 – 2026
Service held in our chapel, March 14
Frank Delaney
1947 – 2026
Graveside, Fairview Lawn, February 2
Rosa Imrie
1931 – 2025
Service held in our chapel, December 19
Notices appear here with each family's blessing, usually within a day of the service being set, and they remain for as long as the family asks.
Whether it is tonight or a year from now, the number does not change and neither do we. If it is easier to write first, write.
41 Chapel Green Road, Fairview · Office 8:30am to 5pm, Mon to Sat. The phone is answered day and night.