A KELFIELD pensioner who made sure the village got to read its copy of The Press every day has died in hospital, aged 82.

Sylvia Joan Barker, of Bank End, Kelfield, delivered the newspaper to residents between 1962 and 2001 after the local shop stopped selling it.

Sylvia used to deliver about 57 newspapers on foot or by bicycle, which took her about 30 minutes to an hour at 4.30pm every evening.

But Sylvia said she enjoyed the job because she got to meet a lot of people and make a lot of friends. When she retired in 2001 at the age of 72, Sylvia was presented with flowers and two clocks by the parish council, and a box of chocolates from The Press. Les Golton, a parish councillor for Kelfield, said Sylvia was well-known in the village.

He said: “All the village knew her and stopped to have a word with her when she stopped at their houses.

“Everybody appreciated her helping out with that.”

He said around the end of the Second World War, Sylvia used to work at William Dresser’s farm in the village for a number of years after leaving school before taking up the paper round with her mother Florence.

Sylvia was a mother to son, David, who is married to Jenny, a sister to Kenneth and Margaret, and an aunt and great aunt.

A funeral service was being held at St Helen’s Church, in Stillingfleet, at noon today.