Trowbridge born and bred Avril Tadd died peacefully on June 22 at Westbury Nursing Home, aged 79.

Miss Tadd was born on February 7, 1936 and spent much of her childhood living in Stallard Street with her parents Clarence and Doris.

An only child, Miss Tadd attended Newtown School in the town and then the Victoria Technical Institute, on the corner of Market Street and Castle Street, in 1950.

With a focus on needlework, Miss Tadd soon became interested in textiles and secured a job at one of the many woollen mills in the town in a clerical position.

This allowed her to gain a wealth of specialist knowledge about the Home Mills factory, its workers and the woollen cloth industry on which Trowbridge’s early wealth was founded.

Miss Tadd spent much of her working life in the role, although she had to take a break in order to care for her father and mother as they grew older.

Following her father’s death in 1983, she dedicated her time to caring for her mother until her death a few years later.

Throughout this time, Miss Tadd was involved in numerous organisations and clubs in the area. Since her early childhood she was part of the congregation at the United Church in Trowbridge, where she was a Sunday school teacher and also part of the church youth group.

She was also a keen folk dancer and was a member of the Westbury Folk Dancing club for the last 20 years, after being at the forefront of the folk dancing revival in the 1960s.

In her dancing days, she would often visit Cecil Sharp House in London, taking part in countless competitions as well as enjoying dancing at Sidmouth Folk Festival.

Many of her friends from the club said that despite her taking a short break to care for her parents, on her return it was like she had never been away.

Miss Tadd will be best remembered for her work for the Trowbridge Museum and town council, where she volunteered for over 25 years.

As a generous benefactor, when Miss Tadd worked as a temporary secretary for the town council, she asked that her wages go towards the work of the museum.

Throughout her time at the museum, she also undertook the enormous task of transcribing all the oral history tapes created by the museum to preserve the memories of Trowbridge’s past in the voices of the people who had lived through it.

It was work like this which led to her being presented with community awards from Trowbridge Town Council in 2002 and 2003.

In her later years, following her mother’s death, she travelled to places such as Syria, Greenland, the Mediterranean and South America.

Sadly, Miss Tadd was diagnosed with cancer in 2013. She lived far longer than the doctors expected, enjoying double the nine months they initially told her to expect.

As someone who lived life to the full, she went on further travels on cruises to the Antarctic and along the Amazon.

Her last holiday was to fulfil a childhood ambition of seeing the Northern Lights.

Miss Tadd’s funeral will take place on Thursday, July 9 at Haycombe Crematorium, Bath at 12.15pm.

A memorial and celebration of her life will then take place at The United Church, Trowbridge at 1.30pm.

She had requested that any donations in her memory should be made to Cancer Research UK.