ALSTON has said goodbye to one of its best-known residents after coal merchant Vincent Peart snr died at the age of 86.

Vince was born in Nenthead, and spent his entire life living and working around Alston Moor.

After leaving education at the age of 14, he took jobs in coal mines, lorries, gritting the roads, and at the town’s foundry.

But he was best known for his career as a self-employed coal merchant, delivering coal across the North-East and Cumbria from the early 1980s right up until 2006, when he retired at the age of 72.

His son, Vince junior - the pair were affectionately known as Big Vince and Little Vince - worked with him on the coal wagon for many years.

In 2005, Vince jnr made national headlines when he launched a campaign to attract single women to Alston - Vince snr went on to star in the Channel 4 documentary, The Town That’s Looking for Love, which premiered in November 2006.

Vince jnr left Alston to train as a social worker in Blaydon in 2007, and Vince snr became the proud grandfather of Jack and Penny.

He also served on Alston Parish Council, and worked as a village handyman after his retirement from the coal wagons, maintaining the town’s green spaces.

Vince jnr spoke in tribute of the man who had raised him alone after splitting with his partner, Vanessa.

He said: “The interesting thing is, I’m 37 now but he was 49 when I was born. He was my age in the 70s, so what that did is give me quite a unique upbringing - he was a very unique Dad who gave me a unique start in life.

“I was raised by myself with my Dad for most of my life.

“It was good to work with him because when I look back, I have all those memories of sitting alongside him. Working side by side with your father is very special.

“Even though I didn’t have as many years with him as I would have liked, in terms of the time I spent all day every day with him, and that’s when I would get all the oral history of the area.

“When I look back, I realise how lucky I was.”

Vince snr was 49 when his son was born, and so Little Vince was raised in a manner that almost skipped a generation.

But he has fond memories of his Dad and his sense of humour.

He added: “I want people to remember my Dad and share his life. That’s what I would want people to remember, stories that make people laugh about him. He had a life well lived.”

In the eulogy Little Vince gave at his father’s funeral last week, he said: “To me, he was as eternal as the Alston moors, as ever flowing as the South Tyne, as strong as the locally quarried sandstone.

“To me, he was as much a part of Alston Moor as the market cross, the cobbles, and the anthracite.”