Funeral of Yan Cherry-Jay at St Mary's church, Rockland. Photo: Bill Smith

A mass of mourners said their final farewells to a young motorcyclist yesterday who was killed in a crash in Norwich on Valentine’s Day.

To the opening chords of Pink Floyd’s Wish You Were Here, Yan Cherry-Jay’s white coffin, laden with red flowers, was carried up the gravel pathway to Rockland St Mary’s church.

The 20-year-old was well-known in the village for riding his motorbikes over the fields and around 350 people filled the Tudor church and spilled out along the pathway to the church’s gates – listening to the service over a loudspeaker.

Tributes scribbled on his coffin included “one of a kind” and “miss you so much”.

The Reverend Mandy Ansell, who led the service, described Mr Cherry-Jay, who worked at Asda in Hellesdon, as “full of life” and “full of get up and go”.

His friend Sooch, who read a tribute at the service, said: “The burden of grief is beyond our own comprehension. Yan’s life was one lived to the limit. He was full of zest. He was always on top form, whatever he was doing.”

The reading was followed by moments of reflection to Simply the Best by Tina Turner – the song his mother Jo Turrell would sing to her son as a baby.

But amid the grief, a note of hope was sounded by Mr Cherry- Jay’s colleague Mick, who read a poem called The Gathering:

“You can cry and close your mind, be empty and turn your back. Or you can do what I’d want, smile, open your eyes, love and go on.”

The order of service programme was decorated with pictures of Valentino Rossi and Michael Schumacher to mark his love of motorsports, which he would watch with his mother.

After saying The Lord’s Prayer the crowd of mourners lining the pathway outside the church parted to watch their loved one make his final journey to a plot in the north east corner of the graveyard.

Mr Cherry-Jay died when his motorbike was involved in a collision with a pedestrian on Magpie Road in the north of Norwich on February 14. The pedestrian was injured in the collision but survived.

Police are continuing their investigation into the cause of the crash.