I reached Bath Aqua Glass workshop before ten oclock this morning and already quite a crowd of people had gathered to await the arrival of the funeral cortege of the man who could genuinely be called Mr Walcot Street.
It was the business he had successfully run with his wife Annette, and in the street full of artisan traders he had done so much to promote and foster over the years.
This morning – a grey and rather moist late summer Tuesday – other shop owners had rigged up the seasonal lights as a tribute to the chair of their business association.
Adrian was responsible for the Wild Walcot Garden and the Bee corridor planters along the street. He loved nature and the natural world.
He also organised lamp post decorations in Walcot Street – from paper monsters to glitter balls – and, one year, even helped put on a lantern procession that lit up one dark winter’s night.
At his funeral service this morning, the Reverend Roger Driver, Rector of St Michaels, said Adrian had the ability to get people together as a local community, sharing a common business interest, and had always wanted the best for the street and the city.
I followed the procession to Bath Abbey where more than 500 people came together to show their appreciation and affection for a man who had loved life, his wife and family and his friends and fellow Walcot Street traders.
The following is a record of that final journey to the Abbey. I have done no more than adlib what l see on the screen.
My thoughts are with Annette and her family. What a brave woman she was today.
The service was followed by a private family internment at the Leafy Lane Natural Burial Woods at Corsham.
Donations in memory of Adrian are for Rett UK and can be made online at www.ajbfunerals.co.uk
I witness this very moving moment. He must have been a very special man.