She was the queen of the traditional gypsy community and had the respect and love of family and friends across east Kent.

So it was fitting that the death of mother-of-15 Jessie Hilden at the age of 88 was met with an outpouring of grief and a funeral service fit for royalty.

Four magnificent white horses pulling a splendid carriage carrying her flower-festooned coffin led the lengthy cortege of cars as it made its way from her home in Blean to All Saints’ Church in Whitstable for the service on Monday.

Jessie, who lost her husband Ambrose in 1995, not only brought up 10 girls and five boys – now aged 46 to 73 – but also other children from her extended family.

At her funeral service she was said to be a remarkable person who was “one of the last of the true gypsies”.

She had endured a tough upbringing and raised many of her own children in a horse-drawn wagon, spending most of her life on the road.

Years later, she and Ambrose lived on a caravan site, where he died, after which Jessie swapped her caravan for a house in Chestnut Avenue, Blean.

It was there she would regularly entertain up to 22 family members for Sunday lunch until her health began to decline.

Jessie, who had 78 grandchildren, 21 great-grandchildren and five great-great-grandchildren, died in the Kent and Canterbury Hospital on September 30.

She was born in Essex in 1928 but her life was blighted at the age of just six when both her parents died.

She was brought up by her aunt and uncle, travelling the country in a wooden wagon.

But she ran away with her husband-to-be aged just 15, spending their first night in a hay barn watching German doodle bugs being shot down.

The couple’s home was a tent made from an old lorry canvas pulled over hooped hazel saplings to shelter both them and their new young daughter, nicknamed Doodle, from the cold rain and snow.

But eventually they got their own horse and wagon, hauling up by the roadside at night time along their travels and cooking on an open fire, which she still preferred long after the arrival of mod cons.

Despite their expanding family, they continued to live on the road, eventually swapping their horse-drawn wagon for a diesel truck with a modern trailer.

People, it is said, were always charmed by Jessie’s wry sense of humour, which was based on her ability to read people. She was also valued for her wisdom and loving support of her huge family.

“She was a remarkable lady and the last of a kind who knew those she could trust, but more importantly, those that she couldn’t,” said one family member.

After the service the cortege and mourners made its way to Faversham along the Thanet Way – bringing traffic to a standstill, much as it had done 21 years ago for the funeral of Ambrose.

The mourners then gathered in the Love Lane cemetery, where Jessie was laid to rest in a family plot next to her husband.