ARNOLD Giles made a big impression right to the last even on the day of his funeral.

For he made his last journey along Cricklade's High Street in a horse-drawn hearse.

Mr Giles, who was born in Cricklade in 1906, is described as a tremendous character by all who knew him. More than 180 people packed into St Sampson's Church on Tuesday to pay their last respects.

His nephew, Tony Devereux, said: "He was my hero, my favourite uncle and such a charmer. Everyone who knew him could not fail to be charmed or enchanted."

Mr Giles was an undertaker and carpenter wheelwright who took over the family firm, Stephen Giles and Sons, in 1940 with his brother Cyril, re-naming it, C and A Giles. He retired in 1970 and moved from the house where he was born in Cricklade to Lea, near Malmesbury.

Mr Devereux added: "Rex Carter, the Ashton Keynes undertaker, was making all the funeral arrangements when someone phoned and suggested we use a horse-drawn hearse belonging to Brian Hicks from Malmesbury who knew my uncle.

"Uncle Arnold loved horses and was into cart horse racing in the 1950s. I knew straight away it was the right thing to do."

He loved to impress women and one day got a pilot friend to fly him from Cricklade to Fairford to impress a barmaid.

He married Ruby Lane in 1935, a blacksmith's daughter.

When he retired to Lea, he bred bantams winning many prizes. His wife died in 1988.

His father bought Cricklade's sixth car in 1923, a Chevrolet, and Mr Giles claimed to be the first young man in the town who could drive his girlfriend to a dance in Cirencester. He was just 17.