St Mary's Church at Great Bedwyn was packed with people having to stand at the back and sides for the funeral yesterday of Rosamond, Countess of Cardigan.

The service was held at the church where she was married in 1980 to the Earl of Cardigan and where she attended communion, priest Colin Fox told the congregation.

Lady Cardigan’s wicker coffin topped with flowers from her family was followed into church by her son Tom, the Viscount Savernake, and her daughter Lady Catherine Brudenell-Bruce who is better known as Bo Bruce, the singer who reached the finals of the recent TV talent show The Voice.

Earlier in the day Lady Cardigan’s ex-husband Lord Cardigan had appeared before a district judge at Swindon Magistrates Court charged with causing criminal damage and theft of a battery from the Savernake Estate where he lives and which he will inherit upon the death of his father the Marquis of Ailesbury, 86, who has lived in London for many years.

Earlier in the day Cardigan had told reporters outside the Swindon courthouse that he wanted to attend his former wife’s funeral but if he did so he would be breaching his bail conditions to keep away from five people, including Savernake Estate trustee John Moore who did attend the service.

Cardigan did not say, however, that he had been issued with a restraining order issued by the High Court the previous evening effectively banning him from going to the church.

A friend of the family told the Gazette: “I don’t know whether the restraining order was issued in the High Court or by a judge in chambers but I understand it was served on him late on the evening before Ros’s funeral.”

Just in case Cardigan attempted to attend the funeral service there were two police officers outside the church to ensure he stayed away.

Lady Catherine and Viscount Savernake walked into church behind their mother’s coffin with their arms linked.

Former Pewsey rector Mr Fox told the service that Lady Cardigan had asked for the service to be held in the church where she was married and where she took communion most Wednesdays.

A tribute was given by long-time family friend Mark Ormerod who spoke of Lady Cardigan’s love for her children -- both of whom were at her bedside in the London hospital where she died from pancreatic cancer on July 4 -- for her art, her horses and also her love for entertaining.

Lady Cardigan, who was told by doctors in January she had terminal cancer, had attended a top London cookery school and written to cookery books.

Before the final hymn a recording was played of Bo Bruce singing The Light Keeper.

After the funeral service her coffin was taken to the Cardigan family church, St Katharine's at Savernake, for burial with only close members of her family attending.

Following the funeral Lord Cardigan told the Gazette that although he was unable to go to the funeral service he did later go to St Katharine’s Church where his ex-wife was buried to pay his respects. He said: “I went on contemplating it for most of the day, because though I was indeed unable to go to the service in Great Bedwyn, there was no such ban on me attending the burial at Saint Katharine's later that day. “I did indeed attend Saint Katharine's later that day, with my sister, and we laid a wreath alongside all the others.”