Ian Wood Memorials

Ian Wood Memorials Ltd is a family-run business that has traded since 1984. Ian Wood served his apprenticeship at Trotman Memorials in Newcastle. He is an accredited assessor and a member of the IVA. The company is a certified member of B.R.A.M.M. (British Register of Accredited Memorial Masons) and carries out its own fixing to BRAMM accreditation. All craftsmen are NVQ trained to levels VR01, VR02, VR03, VR194 and VR198 in Monumental Masonry.

The company covers the North East, including Northumberland, Newcastle, North Tyneside, Gateshead, South Tyneside, Sunderland, Durham, Darlington, Hartlepool, Stockton, Middlesbrough and Redcar. It specialises in granite, marble and sandstone memorials, additional inscriptions, renovations, cleaning, re-fixing of unsafe memorials, removals for burial, re-gilding and re-leading. All lettering is individually hand-carved using traditional methods from the company's workshop, and the gold leaf used is 23.5 carat.

Those commissioning memorials for a parent, a partner or a child describe a workshop that handles headstones, kerb sets and added inscriptions with visible care. A family returning for a second time notes the same standard of workmanship on both occasions, and the fitting of a headstone and kerb set for a late mother and grandmother is recalled as something that did the family proud. Reviewers often mention how swiftly a name or further wording was added to an existing stone, one request being finished ahead of Christmas.

Guidance on lettering and on vases is described as knowledgeable and relaxed, and the charge for a vase with an inscription struck customers as fair, with little waiting involved. Ian, Shakara, Daniel and Mary are named for their kindness and steady support, one account thanking Mary for her considerate manner while a relative was unwell. Communication before and after the work is a frequent point, and the memorial ordered arrived as agreed. The finished pieces are called beautiful and fitting tributes, with the lettering and kerb work praised for its neat finish.