JAZZMAN George Melly was one of many mourners who turned up to give a North-East man a fine send off at his funeral.

Artist Anthony Earnshaw died last week, aged 76, and at his funeral in Saltburn, on Tuesday, mourners, including Mr Melly, lined up to scribble farewell messages and poems on his cardboard coffin in the town's Britannia pub.

Mr Earnshaw was born in West Yorkshire but moved to Saltburn when he retired in 1985, as he remembered visiting his grandparents in the town when he was a child. He had worked as an art teacher across West Yorkshire and discovered surrealist art while he was in his 20s.

Mr Melly, who met Mr Earnshaw in the 1950s, was a close friend and a collector of his surrealist works. He shed tears at the coffin, which was adorned with Mr Earnshaw's beret and a glass of red wine.

Harlem Blues was played as the coffin was lowered into the ground at Saltburn Cemetery, watched by his widow Gail, an art teacher who he married 33 years ago.

A friend of the couple said: "It was the most amazing funeral with old Anthony's cardboard coffin on the pub stage. George Melly wrote a little message on it too. It was a wonderful way to go."