VIDEO: Huge turnout for lavish funeral of 'King of Sheffield' Willy Collins
and live on Freeview channel 276
The streets of Darnall and Pitsmoor were lined with hundreds of mourners as former bare knuckle boxer Willy Collins, dubbed The King of Sheffield, was laid to rest.
Dad of nine Mr Collins, 49, died suddenly in Spain last month and was well known in the city’s traveller community.
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Hide AdMr Collins’ gold-plated casket, topped with a crown, toured Sheffield to a backing of car horns, cheers and smoke bombs en route to Shiregreen Cemetery where he was laid to rest in a plot lined with tiles featuring the Last Supper, hurriedly repaired this morning after being vandalised last night.
A huge truck and a carriage pulled by plumed horses carried Mr Collins’ casket, which had to be carried by ten men while 40 Rolls Royces, vintage cars and bikes decked with Irish flags and Mr Collins’ picture followed.