Cusop Church was packed for the service - there were even extra folding chairs at the back.
Rev Jane Rogers took the service, and the chief undertaker was a very smart woman in a low top hat. It was all beautifully done. The coffin was a wicker casket, and the church was decorated with autumn foliage and flowers, including an arch under the Norman arch to the chancel. A piece of piano music was played which had been written for Ian by a friend of his. There was a donation box to give to the upkeep of Cusop churchyard.
A family member spoke about what Ian had been like when she was growing up, and a long term colleague of Ian's from English Heritage spoke about his professional life. When he and Tracy moved to Cusop, he put his project management skills to good use when the Cheesemarket was being brought back into use, and he was also a long term member of Cusop Parish Council, starting with ten years as the Clerk of the Council, and then becoming a councillor, and leader of the council. He was very much involved with the local history project on Cusop Castle (just across the road from the churchyard) and the churchyard itself, which is an early round churchyard. He'll be greatly missed in the local community.
We left the church to the music of the Levellers - "There's Only One Way of Life", which had a lot of people tapping their feet to the beat. Ian was buried in Cusop churchyard, and then there was tea at the Village Hall - everyone had worked very hard, and it was a very good spread.
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