MORE than 200 people crowded into West Wiltshire Crematorium in Semington on Saturday October 21 to pay tribute to 29-year-old Great Cheverell builder Paul Ridout, who died in a car crash at Bishops Cannings last week.

The Rev Terry Brighton, vicar of West Lavington, paying tribute to the popular man who had many interests, said Mr Ridout had so much potential and his loss to family and friends was causing much pain.

His father Mervyn Ridout later spoke of the sense of devastation felt by all of the family, including Mr Ridout's older brother, Jamie, and fiancee Bernadette Randall, at his tragic death.

It is the second tragedy for the family in 12 months. Mr Ridout's mother, Sheelagh Ridout, 57, died last Christmas after a long fight against cancer.

Mr Ridout said Paul, his younger son, had taken over the running of the family business just two years ago.

"From a little boy he had more hobbies than he had time for. He was never bored. He was into karting, motorcycles, model planes, everything.

"When he was just eight or nine he used to get a load of old gearboxes, clean them up and sell the scrap. With some of the money he made from that, he bought up toy parachutes from the village shop at 15p each, made them up and sold them for 30p."

His fiancee Miss Randall, said Mr Ridout had a compulsion to take things to bits to see how they worked. "Everyone thought the world of him," she said.

Mr Ridout was born with a blood disorder and had to follow a special low-fat diet. As a result there was a particularly strong bond between him and his mother and Mr Ridout's only consolation is that she didn't have to cope with his death.

He said: "You always worry about your children but you never think you're going to outlive them.

"You have a set plan of how things are going to turn out. Paul and Bernadette were going to be married and I was looking forward to grandchildren. Paul had taken on the business and he was making a real go of it.

"Now those plans have come to nothing."

Because of Mrs Ridout's illness, the family took no holidays last year. Mr Ridout and Miss Randall made up for it this year by going to Lanzarote in February, Gran Canaria in March, and had just returned from a trip to New York and Washington DC.

Mr Ridout said: "It is Bernadette I feel mostly for. They had got over their trials and I looked for great things from the pair of them. I can't see a future now."

The future of the family business hangs in the balance. Harry Ridout and Son Builders was started by Mr Ridout's grandfather in 1947 and was well respected in the area.

Parts of the yard have been let out to other companies, but it is not known yet whether Mr Ridout will sell the yard or arrange for it to be run by a manager.

Mr Ridout said: "At the moment it is being run by Mr Ridout's right-hand man, John Clay.

"He wants to finish all the outstanding jobs and I would like to think he or someone else would carry on, but it's early days."