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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