The number of tributes, messages of sympathy and offers of support are comforting the family of Keith Baldwin, who died when the JCB he was driving plunged into a slurry pit.

Mr Baldwin, 50, was moving heavy slurry from one pit to another on Westcombe Farm in Hooke last Thursday morning when the accident happened.

Two tractors were used to drag the almost completely submerged vehicle out.

Mr Baldwin’s wife Vicki, who lives with their three children, aged six, 12 and 15, in Kingston Russell, near Long Bredy, said people had been extraordinarily kind and the number of people offering help was comforting and a testament to how well-loved her husband was.

But she said the close-knit family were finding it very hard to come to terms with Keith’s shocking death.

She said: “Obviously it was very tragic. The police came round here in the morning to try and find me and that was the first I knew of it.

“He used to go and help at the farm. He loved it, he loved going up there just being with the cows.

“It is just so ironic that he spent many happy times popping up and helping out and it took his life.”

Mrs Baldwin said although her husband had diabetes he was a highly qualified man who had worked all over the world in the past as a technical engineer selling robots.

He also had many certificates for forklift truck and crane driving and was very experienced, she said.

She said: “He was a very clever man, who lived in quite a disabled body with his diabetes.

“Working on the farm gave him a new lease of life.

“He loved his machinery, everywhere we’ve been he used to enjoy driving tractors and helping out.

“He did have problems with his legs because of the diabetes but he could drive a tractor and he loved it.”

She said the family was in a state of limbo while investigations into what happened continue and that was hard.

She said: “It would just be nice to find out why.

“We can’t do anything until we hear from the coroner’s office and we are still waiting to hear what they plan to do and when.

“We can’t go and see him, we can’t move him.

“We can’t even plan the funeral.” She said it had hit her children hard, particularly the 15-year-old who is in the middle of his GCSEs.

“He is just angry and sad. It is just such a crucial year. He turns 16 next week and to think we are now planning a funeral around his 16th birthday is the most tragic, tragic thing and will mark his memories for the rest of his life.”

But there was a great deal of comfort from people who knew her husband, she said.

She said: “There’s just been such an outpouring of love for him – we never realised just how well-known and well respected he was. Hundreds of people from all over the place have been paying tributes and saying nice, kind things.

“People have been unbelievably kind – school friends, neighbours, people we barely know, people from miles away have offered to come and support us and that has been the most touching.

“Keith would be shocked I think because he was a very private man, a very quiet man, but was loved by so many people and I don’t think he realised just how special he was.”

No date has been announced for an inquest to be opened yet but an investigation by the Health and Safety Executive has been launched.

A spokesman said: “HSE has launched a joint investigation with Dorset Police into the incident and an inspector has attended the scene. Police are leading inquiries at this stage.

“HSE will consider further action if and when primacy for the investigation is handed over to us by the police.”

The emergency services were called just after 8am last Thursday after fellow farm workers found Mr Baldwin.

They told police they were aware of the noise of his machine while they were in the dairy parlour and it was only when the noise stopped they came out to investigate.

At first all they saw was a broken post but when they looked over the bank they could see the JCB immersed in slurry. It took two tractors to pull it out. PC Nigel Case said the man’s fellow workers said they wished they had gone in.

He said: “They could hear the vehicle manoeuvring while they were in the cow shed and it stopped and they came out to find him but they were powerless to do anything.

“They were saying they wished they’d gone in but then we would have been dealing with three tragedies instead of one.”