Staffordshire farmer's coffin taken on tractor to see cows 'one last time' in touching tribute

The family of a farmer who died last month paid tribute to the 85-year-old by taking him to see his beloved cows one last time before his funeral.

George Brookes' coffin was mounted onto a tractor so that he could visit his cows before his family buried him.

As a boy, the well-known farmer from Uttoxeter, Staffordshire, would leave school early to walk the cows home with him.

George, who died on July 31, loved cows after his father Bill added cattle to the Lower Loxley Farm in 1947.

George's son David, and the former councillor for East Staffordshire, said he would often ask someone to take him to the farm after he retired "just so he could see the cows".

"He was a very well-known and much-loved man in the area. Everyone knew George and he had around 300 mourners at his funeral."David said George lived and breathed the farm, "he was a character and passionate about his lifestyle and the farm he lived and worked on".

"He was incredibly proud of us children and his grandchildren, always saying not one of them had a lazy bone in their bodies, which he always taught them to be like," David added.George and his Kath, who he met at a junior farming event in Uttoxeter, have four children, 13 grandchildren, and six great-grandchildren.