funeral home lower hutt

Our History

Croft Funeral Home is one of Lower Hutt’s longest established companies and retains a long history with the local community.

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Founded by James Richard (Dick) Croft in 1910, the youngest son of James, Gavin Croft, subsequently joined the firm in 1943 and continued to run the business until his death in 1998.

Croft Funeral Home started out on South Street in Petone, before moving to Lower Hutt in 1937. It was then purchased from the Croft Family in May 2010 by Robert Sinclair. To retain a link with the Croft family, Robert introduced the little house (known as a Croft) from his Celtic heritage.

Owned and operated by the Croft family since 1910, Croft Funeral Home is one of Lower Hutt’s oldest companies. J R Croft Ltd was founded in 1910 in South Street, Petone, by James Richard (Dick) Croft. Richard foresaw in the 1920s that Lower Hutt was going to become the Hutt Valley’s major population base. In 1936, he purchased a site at the western end of Kings Crescent, at that time on the outskirts of town. J R Croft opened the new Funeral Home on this site in 1937. The premises represented the only purpose built Funeral Home in the area (this is still the case today).

The current premises are a development of the original 1937 building. Many alterations have been made over the years to accommodate the growing expectations of the bereaved. The front of the building was enclosed in 1987 to create a conservatory for greeting purposes. In 1991 the Reception Lounge was built.