FAMILY and friends will gather at St Giles Church, Ludford, next Tuesday at 1pm for a thanksgiving service for the life of Cyril Mellings.

Mr Mellings, who was 98, died peacefully at his home in Ludlow on November 16. Many in Ludlow will remember him riding his bicycle around the town right up to his final days.

He was the oldest of six children born to a tenant farmer in Leebotwood in 1905.

When he was a teenager, his father bought a farm called Bockleton Court at Stoke St Milborough on Clee Hill. He loved to describe the family walking with the livestock and a few horse-drawn wagons along the narrow lanes to the new home.

Mr Mellings went to school in Shrewsbury and then helped his father run the farm through the Depression years, usually unpaid and working long hours.

In the mid-30s, he decided to start his own petrol station and garage on Gravel Hill and, in 1935, he married Cicely Lowe.

During the Second World War, Mr Mellings carried on with his business by day and worked on ambulances during the night. After the war, he bought the Standard car dealership and built it up through sheer hard work, before retiring in 1965.

When younger, he rode in point-to-point races and obtained a student pilot licence.

He and Cicely had two children and there were also five grandchildren and one great-grandchild.

After Cicely's death, Mr Mellings remained active in his garden and his house right up to his final day.