MORE than 100 people gathered in York Minster to pay tribute to “a lovely and lively personality”, at the funeral of toddler Lydia Bishop.

Many tearful mourners wore pink to remember the three-year-old, who died on September 17, following a tragic accident on her first day at York College Day Nursery.

Canon Glyn Webster led the solemn service, which was held in the Minster’s Quire, and told Lydia’s parents Brad Bishop and Rebecca Dick, of South Bank: “Your lives together as a family will never, ever be the same again”.

He said: “Her birth brought you much joy and excitement, but her death has plunged you as her family into the very depths of grief, and the highest of highs of pain.

“There will always be that empty place at the table, always that missing little person in your circle as a family, always wondering what would she be doing now, how would she be developing as a person, going through childhood, into her teenage phase, and into adult life.

“There will always be an amazing, wonderful little person missing from your lives.”

The ceremony included hymns and prayers, and mourners wept as they heard a Celine Dion version of You Are My Sunshine, and Eva Cassidy’s Songbird.

Canon Webster said Lydia was “a lovely and lively personality”, who “particularly enjoyed being daddy’s little girl”, and had been looking forward to starting school.

He said: “As she grew, she achieved her milestones in life easily and early – speaking and singing, being interested in other people. She loved life.

“She was looking forward to making her next significant milestone in life, by going to school, beginning her early years in education.

“It is so tragic that what she would have been such a happy and significant milestone should have brought her to her unfair, premature milestone that faces us all.”

After the service, the small, white coffin was taken in a white carriage pulled by a pair of grey horses, amid pink and white floral tributes, for a private burial.