This enabled local people to pay their respects to Ian, the owner of Serles House in Victoria Road, who died suddenly earlier this month.

Ian, was involved in many organisations in the town and because of COVID-19 restrictions his funeral was private but the procession enabled a large crowd to gather, social distancing, to pay their respects to him.

Ian first opened his garden for Wimborne in Bloom in July 2002 and the programme notes for the day stated ‘it was the masterpiece of an eccentric’.

Alan Titchmarsh once described the garden as one of the ten best gardens open to the public in Britain. Since 2002 Ian had opened the garden for many organisations including the Wimborne Civic Society and the National Gardens Scheme raising many hundred of pounds over the years.

The hearse made several stops en route, one outside the Museum of East Dorset in the High Street, and one in King Street outside the site of the house where Ian was born – which is now the Minster’s car park.