THE funeral has taken place of well-known Bury businessman Stefan Sikorski whose family opened the town's Bolholt Country Park Hotel 46 years ago.

Mr Sikorski, aged 56, owner and managing director of the Lavender Hotel Group, died suddenly yet peacefully at Fairfield Hospital earlier this month. He leaves a wife Sarah, and children Daniel, Gabriella and Abigail.

His company embraces the Bolholt, the Old Mill in Ramsbottom and four other hotels in the Burnley, Widnes and Preston areas.

From the age of nine, he worked in the family's hotel business. His parents, Stanislaw and Wilma, originally established the Bolholt as a seven-bedroom hotel in 1969.

Mr Sikorski learned about every single aspect of the industry, including finance and management. He achieved a BSc honours degree in hotel catering and tourism management at the University of Surrey and a teaching degree and diplomas in advanced food hygiene and management.

The businessman also gained valuable experience at the Savoy and Royal Lancaster Hotel in London along with other provincial venues to expand his knowledge and skill-set further. He became managing director of the Lavender Hotel Group in 1993. The company employs more than 600 staff.

In 2008, he walked away virtually unscathed when a helicopter, which he had owned for just a week, crash-landed minutes after taking off from the Bolholt Hotel.

In 2012, Mr Sikorski won a lifetime achievement award at the Bolton and Bury Business Awards, an accolade which he described as "a really proud moment for me."

A year later, he disclosed how he was left £600,000 out of pocket after becoming a victim of the so-called “rate swap” scandal. He helped spearhead a national campaign to put pressure on the banks to speed up compensation.

The plight of Mr Sikorski, who was a member of the Bully Bank campaign, was raised by Bury North MP David Nuttall during a House of Commons debate surrounding the mis-selling of interest rates by banks to businesses.

Tuesday's funeral service involved a Requiem Mass at Bury's Guardian Angels Church followed by committal at the East Lancashire Crematorium in Radcliffe.