A MOTORCYCLE enthusiast took his final journey yesterday in fitting style - carried in the world's only custom-made sidecar hearse.

Leslie Maddison, 78, had a passion about sidecars and his son, Ian, who is a funeral director, thought it only right he should go out in style.

The heaven-sent conveyance was provided by the Reverend Paul Sinclair, of Motorcycle Funerals, who rode a Triumph Speed Triple with the hearse.

Mr Maddison Jnr said: "He also has a Suzuki for the hearse, but my father would not have appreciated a Japanese motorcycle. It was right that he should by carried by a traditional British bike."

Mr Maddison Jnr said his father used to pedal cycle all over Scotland before he got his first motorbike.

He said: "He used to go everywhere in the 1950s and early 1960s with my mother, Audrey, and my sisters Susan and Jacqueline, on his BSA and sidecar. When I was born, he had to sell the motorbike and sidecar to buy my pram."

Mr Maddison Snr, who played football in the Northern Football League for West Auckland and counted football legend Bryan Robson among his friends, worked at BOC, in Birtley, near Chester-le-Street, for 30 years.

He was married for 53 years. He spent the last two years of his life at Beamish Residential Home after his wife cared for him for 16 years at home in Pelaw Road, South Pelaw, Chester-le-Street.

Mr Maddison Jnr said: "He spent his last years confined due to illness. It was a bit of a release for him when he died.

"It is poignant that he should leave the world with one last ride in a sidecar. I am very sad about it but I wanted to make this a celebration of his life."

The service was held at St Mary and St Cuthbert Church, Chester-le-Street, where Mr Maddison was sent on his final journey by a Scottish piper.

Both the Rev Sinclair and Mr Maddison Jnr wore chequered scarves signifying winning at the finishing line.

Mr Maddison Jnr said: "His ashes will be taken to Ben Nevis. That's what he would have wanted.