TRIBUTES have been paid to a popular funeral director from Chorley who has died.

Bernard Kenyon, 86, ran J Kenyon’s Joiners and funeral directors for 25 years and died on September 16.

He took the business over from his brother James who died from a brain haemorrhage in 1971.

His son Carl Kenyon, who runs Kenyon Meridian Funeral Home, said: “Dad arranged and conducted funerals in a way that cannot be repeated today.

“He joked throughout the whole procedure but at the same time showed respect and compassion, people loved his manner and approach to the job, to do this and for it to be acceptable you have to be a certain person, a unique individual. He was all of these things.

“He was also a very sociable person, he used to go to all the social clubs in Chorley, lots of them closed down now.

“I used to say he was our public relations man. This is something I am not. I cannot drink in the way he did, two pints and I’ve had enough, I would rather stay in with a good book.

“When my father went out he would stay out until they closed the doors.

“He never got really drunk, I don’t think he could fit enough in him to do so but when he did he just laughed all the more and made everyone laugh.

“He never said a bad word about anyone and he thought every meal out and night out was belting. In his later years he was only partially sighted but it did not stop him going out dancing and socialising every chance he got. Great character who will be missed by a lot of people in Chorley.”