MORE than 1,500 people came to Aldermaston yesterday to pay their respects to a prominent figure in the traveller community.

Brian Frankham died at Basingstoke hospital on February 15 this year at the age of 62, having battled cancer and pneumonia.

His funeral yesterday was attended by people from all over the country, and caused police officers to redirect village traffic blocked by the procession.

It started with a tour of a square where Mr Frankham used to tend horses at his home at Old Stocks Farm, Paices Hill, Aldermaston.

The funeral procession then wound its way to the Parish Church of St Mary the Virgin in the village.

Mr Frankham’s body was taken to the church in a carriage drawn by four horses. Flat-bed trucks and carriages carried the many floral tributes to Mr Frankham, including one of a horse and another of a sawn-off shotgun.

Five limousines also formed part of the procession.

The service included a eulogy and a poem written by his wife Gina Frankham. Afterwards, three doves were released into the air in tribute.

Mourners were asked to wear colourful neckerchiefs, as Mr Frankham used to do, and these were thrown on to his coffin as it was lowered into the ground.

Those attending then made their way to Trunkwell Mansion House in Mortimer for the wake.

Born on July 7, 1952, Mr Frankham moved to Aldermaston 22 years ago, having lived in Burghfield for around 16 years.

The father-of-five and grandfather-of-16 was a landscape gardener but also traded horses.

The last few days of his life were spent at Basingstoke hospital. The day before he died, on Valentine’s Day, his 17-year-old granddaughter Billiejo and her partner Ruben Murphy were married at his bedside.

Mrs Frankham told The Gazette: “He was a well-respected man to lots of people.”