With the death of Rodney O’Rorke last week, the village has lost one of its great characters.

Rodney was born in 1931, the youngest of four children. They lived in humble circumstances in a cottage – long since demolished – in North Street which was so dilapidated that they were not charged rent. His was then one of the first families to move into Dryden’s Close.

Rodney trained as a mechanic in the RAF. An allergy to diesel meant that he could not follow that as a career so he undertook a number of different jobs, mainly in farming or shoe-making.

Caring for his late wife Joan, and his own ill health, had more or less restricted him to his home in recent years. However, as an avid user of the internet, he did not let the modern world pass him by.

A wry wit and keen observer of local life, he leaves a fund of memories and lively anecdotes as his legacy to the village.

Photo courtesy of Mel Chapman: Rodney (left), Mel’s Sister Janice and Uncle Alfie (Holland) who also died recently.