The funeral of a well-known local character and businessman turned many heads in Keswick.
Four horses pulled a hearse through the town centre streets to St John’s Church and hundreds of people turned out to pay their respects to Eddie Hutton.
The cortège was certainly eye-catching and there was a poignant moment when it pulled up outside the George Hotel. Mr Hutton had been a regular there and it was where he met his wife 50 years ago.
He was a real country man at heart who developed a love of horses and carriages while working at Albert Menaged’s stables on an island on Derwentwater. He was passionate about bow top gipsy caravans and the travellers’ lifestyle and was a yearly visitor to the Appleby Horse Fair.
“He was a country man who enjoyed nothing more than being outside tinkering in the barn and cutting the grass and just anything to do outside. He loved it,” said his wife Jean. “When he was ill he loved to sit outside and look at the mountains and fells. I suppose he was reminiscing because when he was fit and younger he used to walk all the fells.”
Mr Hutton was diagnosed with cancer in December 2021 and died at his Low Grove Farm, in Keswick, on January 3, aged 73.
“He did not want to die in hospital. He wanted to die at home, which he did,” said Jean. “He also wanted his coffin to be carried by a gipsy bow top.
“But when he spoke to somebody about getting a team of horses together, he was told that they needed to have pulled a bow top with metal wheels before. It spooks them otherwise, so that was not going to happen. He would have loved to hear the clip, clip, clop of the horses as they passed through town.”
Mr Hutton was born at his grandmother’s home in Aspatria. His parents lived at The Scenes in Keswick and later the family moved to Springs Farm on Springs Road. They were a traditional farming family and Mr Hutton had a brother Derek and sister Hazel.
Mr Hutton was educated at St John’s School, and Brigham School before attending Lairthwaite School in Keswick.
His first job was as a motor mechanic at The Motor Company on Lake Road and it was during this time that he met Jean at The George Hotel. She was working as a waitress at The Dell View Hotel. They were married in London at St Peter’s Italian Catholic Church in Clerkenwell.
The couple had three children, Michaela, 50, and twins Dean and Eddie, who are 46. They have six grandchildren – Lucie, Francesca, Oliver, Isabella, Eddison and Macy.
After leaving his motor mechanic job, Mr Hutton started working with horses for Albert Menaged and this was a job that he absolutely adored. He then set up E&B Motors, on Penrith Road, Keswick, which he ran with Bernie Tyson, for many years. Later he set up Hutton Car Sales on the Gilwilly Industrial Estate in Penrith and when he retired his three children took it on and still run it.
“He had a beautiful send-off,” said Jean. “He was one of Keswick’s local characters and it was nice to see so many people turn out.”
