![\"Jacob](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/102328645-15120123-Jacob_Walsh_from_Casselden_Walsh_Independent_Funeral_Directors_i-a-5_175848798522.jpeg\")
<\/p>\nEvery morning, just after eight, Jacob Walsh unlocks the front door of Casselden & Walsh in Goole, East Yorkshire. He walks past the reception area and through the wood panelled doors into the Chapel of Rest, complete with altar and seating for 18. Then he knocks at the heavy white door of the morgue.<\/p>\n
\u2018We always knock before we enter. And we always say \u201cMorning!\u201d. Never \u201cgood\u201d morning, because of course it isn\u2019t good,\u2019 he explains. \u2018Not for them.\u2019<\/p>\n
Once inside, he\u2019ll check the order of the day on a big white board, pop on a green plastic apron, greet everyone by name and start chatting away.<\/p>\n
About the weather outside. What\u2019s going on in the world. And what he and his very capable staff will be doing to look after them today.<\/p>\n
\u2018First, we\u2019ll give you nice wash. Then a bit of a shave and a tidy up. Then we\u2019ll get you dressed for the final stage of your journey.\u2019 Which might be in a suit. Or a onesie. Or a football shirt. Or just a nice dressing gown.<\/p>\n
And if the family have asked, he might put some music on \u2013 \u2018Elvis, heavy metal, jazz, any of their favourites\u2019. But, otherwise, it\u2019s just gentle chat as the morticians start work, suturing a mouth shut with a plastic mouth guard and specialist curved needle, sealing eyelids and relying heavily on cotton wool for, well…<\/p>\n
And here I\u2019ll pause for a second so that if you\u2019re eating your breakfast, or if this is already making you feel queasy, you\u2019ve a moment to turn the page and think about something sunnier. Because there is lot more detail to come.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Jacob Walsh\u00a0from Casselden & Walsh Independent Funeral Directors in Goole, East Yorkshire<\/p>\n
And it\u2019s all thanks to a new breed of TikTok \u2018death-fluencers\u2019 \u2013 young, social media-savvy and very empathetic funeral directors and morticians, determined to remove the velvet curtain of discretion in funeral parlours and \u2018positivising\u2019 death by telling us everything.<\/p>\n
About smells and secondary purges, embalming and post-mortems. And how cotton wool, a \u2018morticians\u2019 best friend\u2019, is stuffed into every orifice. How tall, thin people take longer to cremate than short fat people, even at 950 degrees. And how, part way through the process, hip joints and gold teeth are fished out of the ashes by a giant magnet and sent off to Holland to be smelted down for charity.<\/p>\n
\u2018We want to take away the fear of the unknown,\u2019 explains Jacob, who has more than 25,000 followers on TikTok as the \u2018Yorkshire Funeral Director\u2019 and is a far cry from the black-suited, pale-faced and enduringly discrete undertakers of old.<\/p>\n
This week, I also met Hayleigh Davis \u2013 aka \u2018MortuaryTechUK\u2019 \u2013 a freelance mortician and mother-of-four from the West Country with 287,000 followers and a passion for embalming. And Hollie, 25, who has run Hollie James Funeral Directors, in Radstock, Somerset, for three years now.<\/p>\n
![\"Hayleigh](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/102328649-15120123-Hayleigh_Davis_aka_MortuaryTechUK_is_a_freelance_mortician_and_m-a-3_175848798522.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
Hayleigh Davis \u2013 aka \u2018MortuaryTechUK\u2019 \u2013 is a freelance mortician and mother-of-four from the West Country with 287,000 followers and a passion for embalming<\/p>\n
And there are plenty more like them, not forgetting Freddie Powell, the handsome young funeral director from Salford with half a million followers, who appeared on the Netflix dating show Love Is Blind.<\/p>\n
All tell me they have been bombarded with questions over the years by friends, family and acquaintances. And all now answer them on TikTok. Anything from \u2018why do you suture the mouth? (Because it decays very quickly and the muscles collapse, so they won\u2019t look right for viewing without.) To why do they seal the eyes? (Most people die with their eyes open and they quickly dehydrate and \u2018sink\u2019.)<\/p>\n
When someone dies, we\u2019re used to calling the funeral director, handing everything over to him (and it usually is a him) and asking no questions about what goes on in the back.<\/p>\n
Which means that most of us didn\u2019t know \u2013 until now, sorry \u2013 that the bigger bones, such as the skull and vertebrae, don\u2019t break down in the cremation process and have to be ground up.<\/p>\n
But most of all, I suspect, we had no idea how much some funeral directors care \u2013 this lot, anyway. \u2018The standard of care has to be the same as if it\u2019s your gran,\u2019 says Jacob. So he\u2019ll hold their hands. And when they\u2019re lying in their coffin in the Chapel of Rest, he has a quiet word.<\/p>\n
\u2018I tell them they have no idea how deeply they\u2019re loved. How badly they\u2019re missed,\u2019 he says.<\/p>\n
All sorts of things are placed in coffins. Football trophies. Cigarettes. Bottles of booze. Ashes of family members. \u2018A lot of lads want PS4 controllers \u2013 though anything with a battery has to come out before a cremation in case they blow up,\u2019 says Hayleigh.<\/p>\n
![\"Hollie](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/102328647-15120123-Hollie_James_has_run_her_funeral_director_company_for_three_year-a-4_175848798522.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
Hollie James has run her funeral director company for three years<\/p>\n
One of Jacob\u2019s ladies was buried with a mobile phone.<\/p>\n
Wow – in case she woke up?<\/p>\n
\u2018No, no! I think she was just on the phone a lot. Though if she had, I\u2019ve have been out of there quicker than Usain Bolt!\u2019<\/p>\n
But they insist that none of it feels sinister. \u2018I\u2019d happily sleep the night in the morgue on my own,\u2019 says Hayleigh. \u2018But in a thick sleeping bag because it\u2019s cold.\u2019<\/p>\n
Sadly, though, while Jacob\u2019s customers clearly adore him \u2013 popping in and out of his funeral parlour all day to drop off chocolates and thank you notes \u2013 not everyone likes this open-book approach to funeral care.<\/p>\n
Particularly some of the old guard who feel strongly that secrets should be kept and dignity retained. And some potential customers. As a result, all of the TikTokkers have experienced their share of criticism. It doesn\u2019t help that the industry is already reeling from recent scandals.<\/p>\n
Earlier this year, Robert Bush, 47, of Legacy Independent Funeral Directors in Hull, was charged with 64 offences relating to 254 victims, after he allegedly failed to cremate bodies and return ashes to grieving families.<\/p>\n
And more recently, Amie Upton, 38, a self-styled funeral director in Leeds, took dead babies back to her home and put them in baby-bouncers in her front room to watch television. \u2018Please don\u2019t tar us by the same brush,\u2019 says Jacob. \u2018We care. We care so much that we\u2019re all crying out for some regulation.\u2019<\/p>\n
And here\u2019s an odd thing. Because while there\u2019s a voluntary body called the National Association of Funeral Directors, the UK\u2019s funeral industry is completely unregulated.<\/p>\n
\u2018Anyone can set up a funeral parlour,\u2019 says Hayleigh. \u2018You could do it tomorrow.\u2019<\/p>\n
Which is extraordinary given the scope of responsibility and duties. Everything from collections from homes, hospitals and hospices, to overseeing the funeral to cremating the bodies, liaising with grave-diggers, hiring hearses and guiding the distraught families through it all.<\/p>\n
\u2018You also don\u2019t need any qualifications \u2013 just a driving licence,\u2019 adds Hayleigh, who used to work with animals in a zoo before she got a job in a funeral parlour.<\/p>\n
Hollie fell into it when she was 16. Her mother had died during her GCSE year and her options were limited so she jumped at an apprenticeship in a funeral home and loved it. By time she was 20, she was their youngest ever funeral director. Three years later, she set up on her own.<\/p>\n
Jacob used to work in hospitality, running a pub, but helped out at his local funeral parlour during Covid and realised he\u2019d found his calling, so sold his pub and never looked back.<\/p>\n
They all adore their jobs \u2013 despite the funny looks from new acquaintances. And the hours \u2013 Jacob and Hollie both work at least 60 to 70 hours a week, as well as weekends, bank holidays and even Christmas Day. \u2018If someone dies, you drop everything and go and collect them,\u2019 he says.<\/p>\n
Of course, not all bodies are viewed, or are in a fit state for viewing, and if there\u2019s no final goodbye, they\u2019re left alone in the fridges, tags on, until it\u2019s time for the service.<\/p>\n
Even a teeny spike in temperature can cause difficult changes. Hayleigh likes the bodies to be kept at five or six degrees. \u2018Any cooler, the skin gets dry and can be prone to mould. Any warmer, and the process speeds up,\u2019 she says.<\/p>\n
But some bodies deteriorate quicker, nonetheless, especially those riddled with cancer. \u2018The cells are already mutating and it all just speeds up after death,\u2019 says Jacob. Similarly, the area around an injury will fade fastest.<\/p>\n
Of course, you can\u2019t work with death every day and not be affected, particularly when young lives are cut short.<\/p>\n
Jake currently has four people under the age of 40 in his care. \u2018Of course it changes you. I\u2019m not afraid of death, but I don\u2019t want to die alone and I always try not leave the house on the back of an argument. Just in case.\u2019<\/p>\n
Hollie is still never prepared for the young. \u2018It shocks you back to reality.\u2019<\/p>\n
The worse days for all are with children and babies, sent on their way with cuddly toys, books and family photos.<\/p>\n
\u2018There\u2019s an unwritten rule in the profession that you never ever charge for anyone under 18,\u2019 says Jacob. \u2018It\u2019s just too heart-breaking,\u2019 he says, suddenly very quiet.<\/p>\n
It is all a lot to take in. Far too much for some. But perhaps it helps funeral directors to share the burden. Maybe it\u2019s fairer that we all know what goes on behind the scenes.<\/p>\n
For Jacob, it\u2019s all about choice. \u2018The more you know, the less there is to fear.\u2019<\/p>\n
They certainly all know what they want \u2013 closed coffin and cremation.<\/p>\n
And now that I\u2019m so alarmingly well informed, I\u2019m with them. No primping or preening, no embalming or mouth suturing. No viewing. No fuss. Though in the very last moments \u2013 just before they close the lid \u2013 I think I\u2019d quite like Jacob holding my hand and saying nice things in my ear.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Every morning, just after eight, Jacob Walsh unlocks the front door of Casselden & Walsh in Goole, East…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":152700,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[97,59,50,86,617,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-152699","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-technology","8":"tag-dailymail","9":"tag-gb","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-technology","12":"tag-tiktok","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom","15":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152699","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=152699"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152699\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/152700"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=152699"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=152699"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=152699"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}