IT was the Bicester butcher’s shop he had run for 42 years and yesterday Peter Goss made one final poignant stop outside.

Mourners bowed their heads as the hearse carrying Mr Goss stopped outside his shop in Bucknell Road, before the cortege moved off to St Edburg’s Church for his funeral.

Mr Goss, a father-of-two, died from a heart attack on September 18 at the age of 72.

His funeral was presided over by the visiting Rev John Steadman and churchwarden Matthew Clements said about 440 people attended.

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He added: “The church was very full and we had about 150 people standing.

“Lots of local people turned out and there were some excellent tributes to Mr Goss.

“It was an uplifting service that was sad but also joyous at the same time.”

Mr Goss was buried in Bicester Cemetery.

Mr Goss’ career as a butcher started in 1956, when he was a delivery boy for Waines Butchers.

Mr Goss had at one stage owned a shop in Kings Sutton, but later came back to Bicester in 1972, when he opened Peter Goss Butchers in Bucknell Road.

The shop is to be kept open to carry on his legacy, “for as long as possible”, business partner Dale Grant told the Oxford Mail.

Besides his career as a butcher, Mr Goss was a keen cricketer – and was president of the North Oxfordshire Cricket Club – and also enjoyed bird watching.

Donations were made to Thames Valley & Chiltern Air Ambulance, the Royal Agricultural Benevolent Institution and Butchers’ and Drovers’ Charitable Institution, which supports those who have worked in the meat industry but fallen on hard times.

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