AN Oxford blacksmith and lover of horses was given a fitting final send-off at his funeral in the city.

Wolvercote legend Tony Strong, 86, passed away on January 27, 2020 and family and friends paid their respects on Friday.

The farrier was born on February 9, 1933 in Water Eaton and went to school at Gosford Hill in Kidlington.

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He spent 30 years working with horses and grazed them - as well as cattle - on Port Meadow in Oxford for about 60 years.

Mr Strong leased Peartree Farm in 1999 for 19 years which became his hobby, and appeared in the Oxford Mail a number of times during his life as well as in its sister magazine Limited Edition.

Oxford Mail:

On one occasion the Mail reported in 2002 how, after having his driving licence taken away by Witney magistrates for speeding, Mr Strong was getting around Oxford in a horse-drawn cart.

Another Mail story reported on December 28, 1981, told of Mr Strong playing Father Christmas to horses and ponies living among the snow at Port Meadow.

He took his Shetland pony and a small cart to deliver big bales of hay to animals on the Meadow.

Mr Strong, who also used to ride on horseback around Oxford city centre to promote films, married his wife, Lorraine, in March 2003 in Victoria, Vancouver Island in Canada.

They travelled around America and experienced cowboy culture such as stampedes, which his wife says was 'a big thing for him'.

Mr Strong retired from being a farrier in 2003 after suffering a stroke when he was 70, but he loved animals so much that he continued to graze on Port Meadow and retired from farming at Peartree Farm in 2018 at the age of 85.

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Oxford Mail:

Mr Strong was the youngest of seven siblings and leaves behind two children from a previous marriage.

In keeping with his love of horses, he had a black, four-horse-drawn hearse as part of the funeral procession on Friday.

It travelled from Kidlington to his home in Meadow Prospect before arriving at St Peter's Church in Wolvercote.

After the service, it travelled through Summertown, up Headley Way and along London Road, Headington to the crematorium at Barton.

Family and friends went to The White Hart pub in Wolvercote afterwards to continue celebrating Mr Strong's life.

Mr Strong wanted the theme of the funeral to be yellow, based on a film starring John Wayne that he loved 'She Wore a Yellow Ribbon', and so the horses wore yellow plumes and family and friends wore yellow scarves.

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Oxford Mail:

His wife said: "It went very well. So many people told me what a lovely funeral it was and that it was the best they had ever been to and what a positive, happy atmosphere there was in the pub afterwards.

"I'm glad because Tony didn’t want people getting upset, he had a good life."

She recited an 'Ode to Tony' which she wrote for his tribute at the service. She said: "He was a farmer, a cowboy, an all round good guy. He had a lifetime of adventures money can't buy. So to celebrate his life we gather today. Remembering Tony in our own special way."