Tributes are paid to estate agent

Bryan Simpson, who lived in Carleton, ran his own estate agents business on Lord Street for the best part of a decade, before retiring in August 2013.

Mr Simpson had been coping for some years with the lung condition, chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder, and died from pneumonia in Blackpool Victoria Hospital on January 31, aged 69.

His funeral was held at Carleton Crematorium on Tuesday.

The father-of-one had been married to Blackpool girl Lynne for 42 years and she said: “Bryan loved working in Fleetwood and felt comfortable there.”

And former colleague Ron Kennedy, a retired Fleetwood estate agent, said: “Bryan was well respected and he was a real gentleman.”

Mr Simpson grew up in the Crook Town area of Durham until he was 12, when his parents moved to Blackpool to run a boarding house on Charnley Road.

An ex-Blackpool Grammar School pupil, he also worked in the civil service as a valuation officer.