AN AVID boating enthusiast made one final trip along the Bridgewater Canal to make his dreams come true.

George Naylor’s funeral procession took him on a canal boat from Warrington Sports Club to Thorne Marina.

And accompanying him on the trip was his much loved boat Independence, which followed on behind.

His godson Adam White said: “It all worked out very well and I'm sure George would have been delighted, it was a lovely winters day with blue skies and sunshine, if a little chilly.

"It was very moving to see people stop along the canal bank and on the bridges to pay their respects

“In 1970 George and my dad Paul bought their first boat, a clapped out old wooden lifeboat called ‘Teal’.

"This was where his love for the British Waterways really began and how fantastic was it that one of George’s last wishes could come true, to make his final journey along the Bridgewater Canal from Warrington Sports Club down to the London Bridge.”

The trip had been organised by his friends including Fran Binns, Thorn Marine and Boaters Corner.

The 67-year-old was the son of Jack and Edna Naylor, who ran Naylor Coach and Bus Company.

But he first came to prominence as the founder of a 1960s rock band, originally called The Reflections after their hero’s The Shadows but changed to The Black Cats.

The group - made up of Mick Tomlinson on drums, Geoff Simmons on lead guitar, Paul White on bass and George on rhythm guitar - toured the north west.

And they are remembered for their time with a brick on the wall at the legendary Cavern Club in Liverpool where they were on the same bill as The Animals, The Undertakers and The Pacemakers.

Adam added: “Ask anyone and they will tell you that George was a real character, even ask the nurses at Aintree Hospital.

“It took the nurses a few nights to work out the hospital didn’t have a resident owl but it was just George with an owl card fooling everyone.

“Although he could no longer speak, you just knew he was lying in his bed giggling to himself.”

The former head boy at Stockton Heath County Secondary School went on to work at Irons & Deans Car Spares, he then moved onto Lookers of Northwich before heading back to Warrington to work for Greenall Whitley.

He was a regular at the London Bridge pub and following his funeral on Friday he was buried with his mum and dad at Hill Cliffe Cemetery.