A FORMER footballer's funeral cortege will be halted today close to the spot where he carved his name in a town's history.

George Hardwick won his spurs playing for Middlesbrough Football Club at Ayresome Park, which has since disappeared under a housing estate.

The 84-year-old former fullback's hearse will halt for a few moments on its way past the site where the Teessiders' ground once stood.

The procession will travel along Ayresome Street, pausing at what was once Ayresome Park's Warwick Street entrance, before turning right on to Linthorpe Road.

From Linthorpe Road, the cortege will travel along The Crescent before turning left into Roman Road and then right into Green Lane. It will then travel south along Acklam Road to Hemlington Lane and Newham Way.

It will then make its way to St Mary's Cathedral, at Coulby Newham.

Middlesbrough spokesman Dave Allan said: "As one of the football club's greatest players, George was much loved and widely respected. Naturally, many of the club's supporters will want to pay their last respects and the route of the funeral cortege is designed to allow them to do so."

Pall bearers will include former Middlesbrough players Rolando Ugolini, Frank Spraggon and Alan Peacock, together with John Bollands, who played for Hardwick at Oldham and Sunderland

Hardwick, known as Gentleman George, who captained Middlesbrough, England and Great Britain, died on Monday after a long illness.

Leading the procession for the final few hundred yards to the cathedral will be Hardwick, a Cleveland Police horse named in his honour.