A VISIONARY retailer who set up a popular York shoe shop has died aged 88.

Catherine Kinloch Paver started Pavers in 1971 with a £200 loan, but leaves behind an international organisation with 160 shops across three continents.

Born in May 1928 Cathy, as she was known, was one of five children brought up in a working class area of Kirkcaldy, in Fife, Scotland.

She moved to York in 1943 to find work when her parents could no longer afford for her to continue in senior school and her first job was helping wounded soldiers in the city’s military hospital.

Her first retail job was at Boots, and it was around this time she met and married her husband of 51 years, Michael Paver.

After a period selling from people’s living rooms and pioneering out of town retailing the company opened its first high street shop, in Scarborough, in 1982.

Others in York, Hull and Newcastle quickly followed.

A few years later, spotting a trend early in its development, Pavers opened its first outlet store in North Shields offering footwear at 30 per cent less than normal retail prices.

Many shops have opened since, as did an overseas venture, Pavers England, which is based in Dubai.

It operates throughout the Middle East, India, and Sri Lanka, with headquarters based in Northminster Business Park in Upper Poppleton in York.

The mother-of-three has been described as an outstanding woman of substance who “oozed charisma, drive, determination and passion for an industry she loved.”

A tribute from the Paver family read: “We will sorely miss Cathy’s wisdom, guile, and ferocious intelligence.

“However, despite footwear being in her DNA, her first love, and the one she treasured above all other, was for her family.

“A devoted mother to her three sons, all of whom later joined her in the business, and as a grandmother, and great-grandmother, she considered this element of her life probably her finest work, and in which her spirit will undoubtedly live on.

“Illness and pain never diminished her love for shoes and she was brightest in her last few days when discussing buys for Autumn and Winter 2017.

“She also reminded us how proud she was of her stores and people and how she would be watching to ensure we all continued her legacy in the future.

“She spent the last couple of weeks surrounded by family, friends and colleagues enjoying every last moment of a long and well lived life.

“RIP Cathy, you were the shoe world’s original woman of substance - your legacy will live on with us forever.”