Local celebrity Lilian dies at 97 (From Stroud News and Journal)

Local celebrity Lilian dies at 97

TALENTED great grandmother Lilian Northwood died peacefully at Gloucestershire Royal Hospital at the age of 97 last Tuesday.

Lily was made famous in the Stroud Valleys for her book Forest Green Lily which covers the first 22 years of her life.

She began putting her memories down on paper when she was 53 but it was not until her son John found them over 30 years later that she was persuaded to make them into a book.

Forest Green Lily, which is told in traditional Gloucestershire dialect, is full of memories and amusing anecdotes about her childhood and early life in the valleys between 1909 and 1931.

Lily includes fascinating historic photographs from the 1880s to 1960s and recalls memories of a bygone age in Nailsworth in the early 1900s.

We are told how her 'infectious sense of humour and adventurous spirit carried her through many difficult situations'.

No doubt this was a reference to the time she applied for and got a job as a bishops valet even though the bishop had advertised for a boy.

She also had no qualms about going for a post as a cook when she knew little about cooking and had to read her employers recipe book in secret in the lavatory.

Lily wrote as light relief from her father's incessant watching of the TV, which she hated.

She said: '" did it as a form of escapism. When I picked up a pen I became oblivious to everything else."

She married Chris Gardiner at the congregational chapel in Forest Green in 1931 but was sadly widowed in 1966.

Lily then went to Australia to visit her daughter who emigrated there when she was 21, and later met and married Bill Northwood.

Bill died of a stroke in 1984 and Lily came home to England.

Lily's fondest memory was of her marriage to Chris when she and her father nearly didnt make the church because he couldnt find his false teeth.

She gave numerous talks about her life after writing the book, included talks to pensioners clubs and people in sheltered accommodation. She had seven grandchildren and 13 great grandchildren.

Lily and her son John, who is also a writer, published the book themselves in 1997 when Lily was 87 without any financial assistance.

They decided to launch it at Forest Green Football Club in Nailsworth where Lily's father George Hart was a player.

John described how the book sold out in just seven months and he has kept many of the letters sent requesting the copies, sometimes 10 at a time.

He said: "We have had two enquiries in the past month nine years after it came out."

Lily is something of a celebrity in the community, known for her rich and varied life.

John said: "Some think that people who are my mothers age are quickly forgotten about but I am in no doubt that my mother will be remembered for all that she has done in her life."

Lily's funeral is at the Bethel Pentecostal Church in Stonehouse on Monday at 11.30am.