Lou will be remembered by ringers as a regular member of the Newport congregation and by some of us as a teacher at Newport’s Infant School, now Cedars. As a teacher, she was memorable in treating her pupils as real people. She treated us with respect but expected us to behave as adults. A few years after retiring, Lou learned to ring at Newport. She was a branch member between 1976 and 1985 and was eventually able to hunt the treble with reasonable reliability. She would occasionally join us whenever we went out to ring at other towers, especially in the Newport area.
Her ability to write out documents with extreme neatness found a job in writing out the peal and quarter peal records at Newport. She also applied the same neatness in marriage registers and on occasions, when wedding parties spent an age signing their names, we would joke that Lou was reverting to her old job and teaching them all to write.
After persevering with ringing for some time Lou eventually had to give it up. She retained a strong interest however, and would frequently ask how the band was progressing or watch our progress from the body of the church.
Lou died on Monday 5th January in Newport. She asked to be buried in Newton Longville, close to her family.
Doug Hird
A five minute extract of the quarter peal of 1250 Yorkshire Surprise Major rung at Newport Pagnell on Sunday 16th November 2014.