WELL-KNOWN Sutton farmer Leonard Thompson had a love of breeding and showing shire horses that lasted his whole life.

So it was fitting two shire horses this week carried his body to his funeral service in the village.

The massive animals pulled a traditional wagon carrying Mr Thompson’s coffin from his son David’s house through the village to St Thomas’s Church.

Many rival competitors from across three counties joined family and friends for the funeral service, and went on afterwards to Skipton Crematorium.

Mr Thompson, 87, had been highly successful in competitions for many years in Yorkshire, Lancashire and Cheshire.

One year his animals won all the shire horse awards at Keighley Show, and one of his long-lived female horses won a total of 52 championships.

Mr Thompson grew up at Holmefield Farm, Sutton, eventually taking over the land from his father and farming most of the fields between Eastburn and South Craven School in Cross Hills.

He specialised in Suffolk sheep, regularly attracting premium prices for his animals, and at one point had a dairy herd. He also worked as a milkman for many years.

Mr Thompson retired from the farm about ten years ago following the death of his wife, Dorothy, and moved to live with son Richard at Appleby.

Following hospital treatment, Mr Thompson moved into Cold Springs Park Residential Home in nearby Penrith, where he died peacefully on June 13.

Ilkley resident Leonard Hudson, Mr Thompson’s close friend for the past 50 years, said: "Leonard was such a pleasant fellow who would talk to anyone. In all the time I’ve known him I never heard him raise his voice or swear.

“He was very proud of his family. He was dedicated to everything he did. He treated his animals as royalty.

“If the world was full of people like him we’d have a better world.”

Mr Hudson said his friend grew up with shire horses at Holmefield Farm.

He added: “Leonard and his father used the shire horses for all the work on the farm. Then, about 25 years ago, he got the bug for showing them.

“Leonard used to breed some good foals from his filly – he’d show them for a couple of years then get a good price for them. Some went abroad to Canada or Holland.”

Mr Thompson is survived by his sons Richard and David, six grandchildren and one great grandchild.