It is part of the family-owned Douch Family Funeral Directors group and will receive major investment, providing all manner of modern facilities.

The front of the building will remain, but a side extension will be added, and at the rear much of the existing structure will be pulled down and replaced.

When completed there will be a new service chapel that will include the latest technology, meaning funeral services can be streamed to those unable to attend.

Also on site will be a function room where wakes can be held, enabling families to hold everything in one location – saving cost and hassle.

A ‘garden of reflection’ will be added, providing a peaceful area for families to remember lost loved ones.

An outside meeting place is also included in the plans that have been painstakingly drawn-up to ensure the development is aesthetically-pleasing as well as practical.

The investment follows the group’s redevelopment of its Lesley Shand business in Corfe Mullen that saw an entire rebuild of the premises and which has proved hugely popular.

Greendale Construction and DMW Architects, which were behind the Corfe Mullen build, are again partnering for this project, along with NT Surveying.

Nick Douch, managing director of the group that has seven branches, said: “Only by investment and innovation will we remain the funeral director of choice in the communities we serve.

“Our new branch in Corfe Mullen has shown how much a community appreciates this and I’m sure people in Ferndown will get fully behind the new-look AE Jolliffe & Son business.

“It was founded in 1922 and my grandfather Jack and Albert ‘Bert’ Jolliffe helped each other’s businesses during the war and in the 1960s when Bert retired, we acquired it.

“Like all the businesses we acquire, we kept the traditional name because people like the link to the past, as well as the traditions.

“But they also like innovation and improvements, so we aim to provide both.

“Holding onto the past while simultaneously moving forward is something our group does well and it has been a formula that has led to sustained growth over the years.

“During the development, business will continue as usual and our personal, sympathetic service will remain unhindered.”