Tributes to colourful Margaret, 86

Margaret Lumb had nine nylon shops in York and the West Yorkshire area, with regular customers including mill girls who popped into her shop on Fridays to buy stockings for their weekend nights out.

Born in Kirkhamgate, Wakefield, the daughter of a farmer, she was brought up to work hard and after selling her stocking business she ran a 20-acre pig farm at Breighton, near Selby.

Her son Ted said: “Mum was a hard worker, but she was also a bit of a party girl. For many years she lived in The Villa in Main Street, Hemingbrough, and she was one of the first, if not the first in the area, to have a swimming pool in her garden.”

Margaret had many friends in the Selby area, and when she moved to her palatial new home, Skeyne House in Wistow, regularly held parties.

Ted said: “It was like a mansion, and a lot different to her previous home at 19 Leeds Road.”

She was regularly seen driving her Rolls Royce in Selby, which always attracted attention from the public.

Margaret was landlady at The Ship Inn at Ulleskelf for more than ten years in the 1970s and 1980s, and later led a quieter life when she retired to live in Selby town centre.

On returning to Selby, she was regularly seen in the town wearing brightly coloured clothes, and multicoloured scarf, but she felt one of the most important areas of her life in later years was cleaning up the cans and other waste deposited on the cholera burial ground and the Abbey grounds each weekend.

Ted said: “She was married three times, and enjoyed most of her long life. She had a Rolls Royce, went on world cruises, and lots of friends enjoyed her company.”

She leaves her son Ted, daughter Hannah, five grandchildren including Suzanne, a firefighter at Selby Fire Station, and one great grandchild.

A funeral service will be held at Selby Abbey on Thursday, October 26, at 11.15am, followed by interment at Selby Cemetery.