A farmer's son, his propensity for climbing showed itself when he was at primary school where he scrambled up a tree but fell and broke his wrist.

He had two sisters. His parents Henry and Margaret (known as Madge), farmed at Upper Barnbow, near Barwick.

In 1962 he married Ann, a local girl.

They had three children, which so stretched his income – he was working the farm with his father – that he looked to ways of increasing it, and being exceptionally clever with his hands and having a natural aptitude with working metal, in his spare time he began fabricating metal tables for butchers who were having to get rid of their old wooden ones which were considered unhygienic.

He built them in his garage, but demand was such that he took over some redundant buildings on the farm, still keeping up with working for his father. In 1980, after his father's death, he took over the farm. While continuing to run it, he expanded the fabricating business, formed a limited company of which he was MD. In 1991 he set up a factory in Garforth, and eventually had a 27-strong workforce.

Despite its success, his real loves were always his family, the farm and country pursuits. People might not have thought of him as being compassionate, but often during haymaking he would see fluffy curlew chicks running in the grass, gather them up and set them on the floor of the tractor cab, until he had finished and it was safe to let them go.

His ability with a rifle was legendary. Once, when visiting friends, it was mentioned that he could hit a sixpence in the air, and thinking it an exaggeration, he was bet £50 he couldn't.

It was a great deal of money in those days, and far more than he had about him, but he said he would prove he could do it anyway, and with a borrowed rifle he did.

Arthur was brought up when farming was hard manual work, and he was strong, too. Visiting a factory where he had bought some tools, he inquired about a full-sized blacksmith anvil which he saw there. He was told: "I'll tell you the same as everybody else. If you can lift it, lad, you can have it." To which Arthur replied "open the doors to the van" and promptly picked it up and stowed it in his van with ease.

As a boy, he attended the Barwick maypole celebrations, and seeing the climber attach and remove the ropes, he thought "I can do that." His chance came in 1960 when he was 18. Ten volunteers put their names forward to be tested, but in the event there were just three. The first had difficulty climbing over the garland hooks, the second lost interest and Arthur not only climbed over the hooks, as requested, but continued to the top of the poll and spun the fox. He got the job.

He was the climber again in 1963, '66, '69, '72,'75 and in 1978, when he was 37.

On one famous occasion, after being goaded by the crowd, he went up a second time. On another occasion he took a camera to the top, perched himself over the fox and took photographs of the village and the crowd below him.

A man of ingenuity, great determination and energy, he was exceptionally generous with his time when it came to teaching others what he himself had learned.

Arthur, who was 67, is survived by his wife Ann, their children Andrew, Karen and Julie, and six grandchildren