AFTER a sometimes tense build-up over several weeks, a funeral which attracted hundreds of gypsies to the North-East from far and wide passed off peacefully yesterday.

Since Patrick Lowther died of suspected pneumonia on January 10, a steady flow of gipsies has swelled the ranks of local travellers.

They came to pay their respects to a Stockton man who died eight weeks after being arrested on suspicion of drink driving and while technically still in police custody.

Yesterday, at a church in the town, about 500 mourners said goodbyes to the 33-year-old.

It was standing room only as nearly 200 gypsies and locals crammed into St Patrick's Church, in Glenfield Road, just round the corner from where Mr Lowther lived, in Cornfield Road.

Much of the town had earlier come to a standstill as a procession of mourners made their way through the snow-affected streets to the service.

Shoppers' heads turned when, after the funeral, the cortege was given permission to travel down Stockton High Street - normally closed to private cars - on its way to Oxbridge Cemetery.

The cortege was followed by hundreds of people, including members of the dead man's family in large black Daimlers, which followed the hearse - itself decorated in floral tributes, one of which read simply "Paddy".

More flowers had been arranged and were brought to the funeral on flatbed trucks.

Father Nick Jennings, who took the service, told mourners that Patrick had been a "pilgrim, which in many ways made him a true traveller".

As mourners huddled together against the cold outside the church, Angela Kennedy, who lives in Mr Lowther's Stockton parish, said the funeral hadn't impacted on the local community at all.

She said: "There has been no trouble at all. Everyone has conducted themselves well and the ceremony was beautiful."

The Police Complaints Authority is investigating Mr Lowther's death after he was arrested last November by North Yorkshire Police in Thorpe Willoughby.

He lost consciousness in the back of a police van while being transported to York and died eight weeks later in University Hospital of North Tees.

Officers of Cleveland Police kept a low profile yesterday as they managed the traffic flows through Stockton.

Last week, Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council acted on two possession orders to move travellers who damaged land they were camping on.

Travellers at yesterday's funeral said there were no plans for a large-scale wake.