A ULEY farmer and businessman has been laid to rest beside his beloved sheepdog.

The ashes of Gary Clift, 59, were scattered beneath his favourite oak tree on his land at Uley, where his dog Charlie was buried some years ago.

Family and friends gathered for the informal but moving ceremony to celebrate the life of reclamation company boss Mr Clift, from Lye Farm.

The remembrance last month (July 19) was led by Mr Clift’s sister, local Baptist minister the Rev Jo Regan, and followed an earlier private cremation.

Born in Essex, Mr Clift’s parents moved their family to Gloucestershire when he was still a young child for his father to take up work as a journalist with The Citizen.

A pupil at Maidenhill School in Stonehouse, Mr Clift’s first job was as a farm labourer in Standish which sowed the seeds of his ambition to one day own his own farm.

Self-taught Mr Clift spent some time in the roofing business, at one stage manufactured his own tiles, and then concentrated on his reclamation firm, all the while renovating houses first at Kitesnest Lane, then in Selsley and Woodchester before moving to Slad Farm in Summer Street, Wall’s Quarry and finally Uley.

“He was self-made and proud of the fact of how far he had come,” said the Rev Regan.

“Very driven, he never seemed to stop working. Even when he was socialising he always had his ear to the ground for a deal.

“He loved living at Lye Farm and who could blame him ... watching the sunset was one of the few things that made him stop working.”

A true countryman who loved elvering and home-brewing in his adopted Gloucestershire, Mr Clift is also survived by his daughter Jenny and three grandchildren.