THE "relentlessly cheerful, funny and charming" host at a former popular Taunton wine bar has died.

Murray Porter worked virtually every lunchtime and evening at Porters wine bar, which he operated in East Reach from 1985 until 2002.

Murray set up the business with his wife, Joey, after giving up life as a farmer and moving to the county town.

Their daughter Lucy, who worked at Porters, said: "He'd never really done anything other than farming before.

"But he and mum had always loved hosting family and friends and they opened the bar at just the right time in the mid-1980s when the food and restaurant industry was taking off.

"It was a fresh start. They just went for it. It was exhausting as they worked incredibly hard.”

Murray welcomed everybody warmly, and he particularly loved hosting Somerset cricketers, including Ian Botham and Viv Richards, Martin Crowe and Graham Rose. When he was not working, he took every opportunity to support Somerset at the county ground.

During his time at Porters, it was voted one of the top two wine bars in the South West. Murray hosted boules evenings in the courtyard, Beaujolais Nouveau parties, and even had a part share in a ballooning company, where customers were offered a balloon trip followed by a meal at Porters.

"Dad was always behind the bar. It was exhausting work. Even when mum died in 1996, he kept the business going. It was really tough, but he didn't stop working," said Lucy.

When he finally retired in 2002, Murray worked his allotment and started a small gardening business.

He always grew too much produce and was well-known for giving the vegetables away to neighbours and friends.

He had particular success with growing sweet peas that he sold at the WI shop in Bath Place.

Alongside gardening and watching cricket, Murray "absolutely loved singing” with the Rivertones Chorus, which he joined in 2009, performing at weddings and celebrations, participating in barbershop conventions, and helping produce the shows.

“The chorus gave his later years real meaning and joy,” Lucy said. Murray even joined a rehearsal the night before he died peacefully in his sleep at home aged 85 on September 8.

GP's son Murray was born in Stanmore in 1938 and was evacuated to Canada during the Second World War.

On returning home, he was first educated in a local school.

It was at this time that he first got to know Joey, his childhood sweetheart, with their "romantic fairytale" leading to marriage in 1960.

Before that, they had been sent to separate boarding schools, which neither enjoyed.

Murray later studied at Seale-Hayne agricultural college, in Devon.

"All he wanted to do was to be a farmer," said Lucy.

His dream came true after a brief spell working for Marks and Spencer in London when he and Joey took on a farm near Halstock, in Dorset.

Lucy and her brother and two sisters had idyllic childhoods growing up on the farm, with their parents hosting amazing parties over the festive period and providing a wonderful country escape for the extended family in the summers.

After 22 years, their parents sold up and moved to Taunton and Porters was born.

Lucy said: "He was relentlessly cheerful, funny and charming. He was generous and kind, always a gentleman, and a very optimistic person."

Murray was reunited with Joey when her ashes were interred with his coffin during a woodland burial on the Blackdown Hills.

As well as four children, he leaves nine grandchildren.