May 30 2012.

VALERIE MELLOR 1934 - 2012

The village of Piddinghoe has lost a true friend; Valerie Mellor who has died in Hove, having lost her battle with cancer.

Valerie may have been born in Birmingham and never lost her Brummie accent, but she was a Piddinghoer through and through and surely nobody has ever done more to discover and record the history of this charming Ouse-side Sussex village.

Valerie was a professional geographer and amateur historian and moved to Piddinghoe in 1985 from Brighton where she first taught geography at Varndean College before becoming a lecturer at Brighton Polytechnic. Everyone who knew Valerie was touched by her enthusiasm and her willingness to impart knowledge.

On retiring from the Faculty of Education Studies at what had become Brighton University in 1990, she immersed herself into the history of Piddinghoe and its people. No archive or record was left untouched in her thirst to discover every detail about the parish and although her book on the subject (Portrait of Piddinghoe) covered the years 1900 to 2000 her records went back to medieval times. Valerie not only lectured about the village but also wrote and directed small pageants where the villagers of today played the villagers of the past.

To commemorate and celebrate Valerie's life a memorial will be held at Piddinghoe in the Jubilee Marquee on the Hoe at 4pm on Monday 4th June, her friends, work colleagues and villages are welcome to attend.

Valerie's vast collection of information and library of local history books, maps and charts will be donated to the East Sussex County Records Office and will form a lasting memorial to this lovely lady.