THE funeral of local heritage enthusiast Chris Coffey is due to take place next week.

Chris died last autumn at the age of 74 but, for unspecified reasons, there have been delays surrounding his funeral taking place.

St Helens Borough Council, which has been handling some of the arrangements, contacted the Star to confirm a service would take place.

The service will take place at St Helens Crematorium on Monday, March 27 at 10.30am.

Chris, from Sutton, was a lover of local history and wrote the Coffey Time column in the Star.

He was involved with the St Helens Heritage Network, and among Chris’ interests was The Cannington Shaw project, dedicated to the preservation and community usage of the historic site, near to the Steve Prescott Bridge.

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In his working life, Chris worked at a bank before moving to the Inland Revenue, working in Manchester and then in St Helens at the former College Street HMRC office.

In his younger days Chris had been a keen cyclist and also did cross-country running, and played rugby union.

Also a music lover, he ran a magazine, Rockzine, in the 1970s about the music scene in St Helens. The owner of hundreds of cassette tapes, Chris spent a lot of his time in later years listening to his favourite music.

Despite illness affecting his mobility for the past two decades of his life, Chris continued to organise events.

He was a massive Laurel & Hardy enthusiast and member of Sons of the Desert, the Laurel and Hardy international fan club.

St Helens Star: Chris, with the curator of the Laurel and Hardy Museum in Harlem, Georgia, in 2009Chris, with the curator of the Laurel and Hardy Museum in Harlem, Georgia, in 2009 (Image: Stock)

Chris also won the bid to host the International convention in 2016, which took place in Grange-over-Sands and Ulverston. During this convention, Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy's hometowns of Ulverston and Harlem, Georgia, were officially twinned during a ceremony, an idea that belonged to Chris.

In a tribute to Chris after his passing, friend Normal Leigh said to the Star:

“He was very positive about everything in his life which helped him through his illness, he was a really positive chap to the end.

“He never complained about anything, he was really thankful that he did as much as he managed to do.

“He was really happy with the amount of things that he had done.”