A FORMER Hexham Flower Club chairwoman and Tynedale flower expert has died, aged 87.

The life of Joy Taylor was remembered at a service at St Peter’s Church in Humshaugh last Friday.

Joy married Bob Taylor in March 1957 and moved to Humshaugh from Newcastle in 1963.

As secretary of the village’s Women’s Institute, she discovered a passion for flowers which would last her whole life. Her interest in floral art ranged from looking at it and creating it to encouraging others to embrace it.

She became a founding member of Hexham Flower Club and trained to achieve her City & Guilds qualification. Subsequent courses enabled her to teach hundreds of people across Northumberland.

Joy was chairwoman of Hexham Flower Club from 1983 to 2002 and a committee member of the Northumberland & Durham area of the National Association of Flower Arrangement Societies – later becoming area chairwoman, president and then associate of honour.

She was involved in World Association of Flower Arrangers events throughout Europe and represented the area at the Royal Horticultural Society in London.

Joy raised funds for St Peter’s Church in Humshaugh and St Giles’ in Chollerton, as well as Hexham Abbey, where she co-ordinated the first Festival of Flowers in 1968.

For many years, she also co-ordinated poppy sellers in the North Tyne for the British Legion’s annual appeal and was decorated by the Duchess of Northumberland for her services to the charity.