HUNDREDS of vehicles joined in a funeral cortege to say goodbye to a lynchpin of the gipsy community.

Up to 2,000 people are believed to have paid their respects.

There were so many floral tributes from mourners, twelve pick-up trucks had to be brought in to carry them to the crematorium.

As many as 200 cars joined the funeral procession of William “Bluey” Saunders as he made the final journey from his home in Oak Lane, Crays Hill.

Mr Saunders, 69, died from cancer.

An English Romany gipsy, Mr Saunders moved on to Oak Lane in 1986.

Following several planning appeals against Basildon Council, he was given permission to live at Oak Lane, a legal site which went on to have about 40 pitches, occupied by other English gipsies.

On Tuesday hundreds of travellers joined the procession as Mr Saunders’ body was taken in a Rolls-Royce hearse from Oak Lane to Romford’s Crow Lane Cemetery, where a funeral service was held.

Police closed off roads, including Harding Elms Road, as the procession left Essex.

Officers in squad cars were stationed along the A127 as the procession travelled through the area.

Grattan Puxon, a campaigner for travellers, said he met “Bluey” in the Sixties.

At the time Mr Puxon and other members of the Gypsy Council tried unsuccessfully to stop Mr Saunders being evicted from a site called Palmer’s Yard in Romford.

Mr Puxon said: “He was a big person in the Romany community, a great person in his own way, and will be missed by many people.

“There would be a lot of people paying their respects at his funeral and he was due a lot of respect.”

Len Gridley, 51, whose home is in Oak Road Crays Hill backs on to the traveller site, said he had known Bluey on and off since he was a young boy.

He said: “I used to live in a caravan where my dad worked at a farm in Lower Dunton Road for a few years when I was three, and some of the travellers, including Bluey. would come and stop there.

“We never had any problems with the English gipsies and no one in the village to my knowledge had a bad word to say about Bluey.

“I always got on very well with him and I think a lot of people will miss him.”