It was an idea that took years in the planning but was worth the wait.

Beth Hughes discovers how a pet cemetery became a successful business and a must-see destination.

We hear of many young visionaries dreaming of opening businesses: a hair salon, a marketing company, or maybe a sweet shop.

But for a Flintshire family franchise, which celebrated a record number in their services last month, what happens in their day-to-day vocation is a matter of life and death - literally.

“A lot of locals were laughing when we opened, and some thought we would never work,” said Emma Ward, director at Holywell Pet Cemetery and Tea Rooms.

Located just off a winding rural road, the large terraced cafe and forecourt is visible from behind regal gates. Dotted around the cafe, which itself is dog-friendly, are the graves of more than 500 animals.

So why turn an old derelict farm into a pet cemetery?

“Dad got made redundant and mum had a little pet cemetery going in the back garden in our old house. We went to a small one in Rossendale and dad said, ‘I can do better’.

“Hats off to mum and dad, who were in their 50s. That’s an age where people think about retirement and the end of a working life.

“We’d been planning it for years, and we were always going to be world-class, we had a major plan. “

Some find it bizarre and bordering on the macabre that you can pop along for a spot of afternoon tea with your dog and show it where it will remain after its inevitable demise. Then again, it welcomes more than 15,000 visitors a year, so it must be putting a paw in the right direction.

For Emma, the whole business is about providing a private service which enables owners to entrust the same burial rites on their four-legged friends as humans are entitled to.

Emma said: “There’s always a cloud of not understanding around the death of pets. People take their dog to the vets to be put to sleep, then often wonder where the body goes.

“It’s very sad when people have lost a pet, and it’s a very sad day when they get buried or cremated. Crematorium sounds like an industrial word, but we’re so relieved we offer a service that doesn’t sound operational or cold.

“Everyone gets horrible memories of crematoriums - it’s human expectation to just go that way. But we welcome all visitors and pets.

“We’re a dog-friendly cafe, with well behaved dogs. We opened the tea rooms to give people more than a cup of tea. It was a customer facility - if you go to any garden centre now and they haven’t got a tea room, it’s just stupid.”

Death is more like a process at the pet cemetery, spiritual rather than functioning, with steps which can be taken as the customer desires.

The first begins from when a pet closes their eyes for the final time, when a member of staff will then collect the body blankets and baskets, before it is taken to the mini chapel of rest, which sits overlooking the cemetery grounds and duck pond.

Emma said this is the ideal place for families, especially children, to say goodbye to furry friends.

The bodies can be arranged, deocorated or dressed to the owners’ heart’s content. The casket is then transported to the crematorium through the delicately decorated doors, the majority of the time.

“Burials, we have around one or two a month, and cremations over 200. Burial is very much the same as a human burial - there’s a legal deed of assignment, headstone, and costs.

“We have however just had our record, 270 pets this month (April.) It is sad, but pets are still dying, and people are becoming aware of our services.

“They assume the vets look after their pets when they die. We aren’t in competition with vets - we take over where the vets can’t.”

The family recall with pride in 2015 when one Chinese man shipped his dog over from Hong Kong: “6,000 miles away, because you can’t bury humans in Hong Kong, so the owner looked all over and found here,” Emma said.

“David the dog was a Labrador and came over in a casket with Chinese lanterns, flowers and a special kimono.

“Another headstone, the Akita statue, was £14,000, and yes people really do spend that much money on their pets.

“We don’t limit them on what they want to spend.”

Sigmund Freud’s theory in the catharsis (the process of death) resonates with the services offered after the burial.

“The process of reducing or eliminating a complex by recalling it to conscious,” wrote Josef Breuer and Freud in Studies on Hysteria’ in 1895.

That’s why the pet cemetery is so appealing and welcoming - to allow people to mourn their pets.

Emma said: “Some people don’t realise how hard it will be, the death of their pets. We get all sorts of people from all walks of life. Everyone is flawed in the same way and need to spend time with, or mourn their pets.”

The grieving often visit their pets’ graves, and most then retire to the tearooms for a contemplative refreshment. But the site is also popular with holidaymakers.

“People who have dogs go on holiday with their dogs, and come here. A lot of holidaymakers happen to lose their dogs when on holiday too,” Emma said, adding that many travel hours to visit their pets for many years after.

But for one 82-year-old Cockney, who goes by the name ‘London Joe,’ travelling 215 miles alone from Highbury, in London, to Flint train station, was one of his best days out.

Joe had seen ‘Europe’s largest pet cemetery’ on episode four of Coastal Railways with Julie Walters on Channel 4 and was “impressed and intrigued”.

He said: “I’d never hear of a pet cemetery, so I got the train from Euston to Flint, and it was smashing. I was treated by the train conductor and the tea room staff like I was a lord. It was the best day I could’ve had.

“Walking around the cemetery brought a lump to my throat, to think these people are such animal lovers. I can see how there was love all around there.

“The people in Wales are all nice, there’s a lovely atmosphere and I’m so glad I came up and saw it and that I’m able to do it again.”

It’s one of those things which attracts all sorts of attention, said Emma, and that “people laugh that we are a tourist attraction”.

But she added: “Everyone who comes here feels better when they go. We try hard to make it comforting. Some people feel the need to come here for weeks, and some have picnics by the grave.”

How does a business look forward when it focuses so much on previous life? Emma is working on a project as a trustee for the National Military Dogs Memorial Fund, and said plans for a huge memorial site for working dogs has been given the green light.

“The memorial includes Buster, the dog who saved 1,000 lives, and Judy, the only dog prisoner of war in the Second World War.

“It’s taken two years to set up an official charity. It will be a monument with four statues facing different directions and all dogs in duty are to have their names on there.

“We’ve got Paul O’Grady on board and I’m trying to get Tom Hardy here - he’s a massive staffie rescue fan and is involved with Battersea Dog’s Home, and apparently staffies are the most decorated war dogs.”

Emma is looking forward to the project’s official launch day on May 19 at the Houses of Parliament and hopes the memorial will not only honour the deceased canines, but will keep their memories alive in a timeless, serene place of rest.