A former parish councillor who campaigned to prevent housing being built on the Abbots Leigh field has recently celebrated her 100 birthday where a tree was planted to mark her long life and contributions to the area.
Betty Lanham who was born in the aftermath of World War One spent years travelling and living abroad before settling in Abbots Leigh in 1975. Her first encounter with the West Country was before the Blitz when she was transferred to Stoke Bishop while working for the Foreign Office.
After passing her school certificate at 15 she began work with the Foreign Office as a filing clerk. She would travel into Downing Street by taking two trains and a bus and unlike today’s digital world, she dealt with wooden box files with hard card folders.
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A year into the job, she came across the Munich Pact, an agreement signed by Britain and their allies France after meeting with Hitler and Mussolini in Munich. The Prime Minister at the time; Neville Chamberlain, agreed to Germany’s invasion of the former Czechoslovakia.
When World War Two began in 1939, Betty was transferred to the Women’s Land Army which organised women to replace male workers who were required to serve in the British Army. Betty enjoyed her time in the Land Army, where she worked on several farms: “Looking after the horses was the best part, I loved Violet, a shire horse.
“I walked her all the way to the farrier and back. I [also] stayed with a gamekeeper whose Swiss wife took me to local dances. The foxtrot with Canadian soldiers was my favourite.”
Once the war was over, Betty spent time travelling and living abroad. On her first trip she spent two years travelling in Africa after sailing to Cape Town in South Africa alone in 1948.
She returned to Lagos in Nigeria to work for the British United Africa company before the country’s independence from British colonial rule in 1960. After meeting her husband, they lived for some time in St Lucia where they had two children, the family moved back to the UK in 1960 and Betty's husband passed away six years later.
After completing her training at St Brendan's College, Betty worked as a biology teacher across various schools in Bristol. By the 1980s she had settled into Abbots Leigh where she founded the civic society.
The school on the Abbots Leigh field was going to be turned into flats. Betty was determined to not allow the proposed development to go ahead, by that time she was a parish councillor.
At the time a newspaper article written by John Thompson, reported her views on the proposal, Betty said: “If the site has to be developed, we would like it tastefully done.
“We don’t want anything that threatens the charm and character of the village. The scheme that’s proposed would cut out the pleasant view of the church tower for some people and add to the parking problems already experienced in narrow Church Road.
“The school field is the only remaining open space inside the boundary fence and we hope it remains.”
Betty formed a protest group, raised funds, wrote to the local MP and lobbied the Department of the Environment at the time. The successful campaign prevented the development and the field remains an open green space today.
Betty’s only grandchild, Olivia Lanham is proud of her “granny” and believes that her love for vegetables has contributed to her long life. Betty believes her thirst for knowledge and adventure and having good parents has helped her reach 100.
The grandmother used to smoke and drink whiskey but nowadays she sticks to wine. Olivia has great admiration for Betty and enjoys the time they spend together.
Olivia said: “Granny has always had green fingers, and her garden is a paradise for me now. We enjoy eating the apples from her tree and having fresh mint tea together.
“I just think of granny as granny, and often forget the extraordinary life she led before I came along. granny is resourceful, independent, true to herself and thoughtful - I hope I've inherited some of her traits.”
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