HE used to take tourists and Lord Mayors around York city centre on a horse-drawn carriage - now Brian Calam is to be taken on a horse-drawn funeral procession through York following his death, aged 74.

The procession will start at about 10am tomorrow in Duncombe Place near York Minster, where Brian used to wait for visitors wanting to go on a tour of the city.

His niece Donna Newell said it will go across the River Ouse and past the railway station, where he worked as a taxi driver, and then the York Railway Institute, for which he played rugby.

She said it will then wind along Nunnery Lane and up Bishopthorpe Road to York Crematorium, where his funeral is due to take place at 11am.

“We are only allowed a maximum of 18 at the funeral because of the lockdown, so if people would like to show their respects they can line the street,” she said.

Horse drawn trips around the city centre were once a famous part of York’s tourism offer, with Brian only one of several operators.

Donna said he also used to take brides to their weddings and had a ceremonial role up at RAF Linton on Ouse, and he also used to carry the city’s Lord Mayors in numerous Lord Mayor’s Parades.

Brian hit the headlines in The Press in 1999 when he was due to take the then Lord Mayor, Peter Vaughan, and Lady Mayoress June Vaughan, through York before he was told by council organisers at the last minute that his services were not required as he no longer held a cab licence.

In 2003, he became involved in a different issue with the council after it said it wanted to force carriage operators to put “nappies” on their animals to prevent dung littering the streets.

The plan was dropped after councillors agreed to continue a voluntary code of conduct which had cleaned up the streets and ruled that compulsory use of “dung catchers” would be like “using a sledgehammer to crack a nut”.

Mr Calam told The Press he thought the row had come to “a sensible conclusion” and the streets were cleaner than they had ever been, and added that the operators had built up a good relationship with the city’s street cleaners.