GAZETTE & HERALD: A FIERCELY independent pensioner who thought nothing of walking many miles each day has died - just two days after her 104th birthday.

Hilda Ledgard died at Ferfoot Nursing Home in Chippenham, her home for several years, a few days before Christmas.

Her niece, Sheila Tutty, paid tribute to her this week saying: "I will miss her very much."

Miss Ledgard, who never married, moved from her home city of Leeds to Wiltshire in 1972.

Mrs Tutty and her husband Tom came to live in Marlborough and Miss Ledgard, then in her 70s, followed suit after many holidays in the county.

Living in Avebury, Miss Ledgard spent three afternoons each week as a guide at Avebury Manor.

She later moved to sheltered accommodation at Crammer Court, Devizes, where she made many friends.

Mrs Tutty said her aunt was a well-known face in the town.

"She did a lot of work for the Labour Party, handing out leaflets and things, which is how she knew so many people in Devizes," said Mrs Tutty.

"She would go to The Crown Centre in Devizes at least once a week for lunch and she'd always talk to people nearby. People just seemed to talk to her, which was probably her northern nature."

Mrs Tutty said even in her old age, her aunt was "exceptionally fit."

She said: "She never had an illness in her life apart from the flu.

"When she was in Leeds she would walk three-and-a-half miles into the city centre from her home. She'd never dream of catching the tram.

"She was a tiny person only 4ft 5ins and had little feet but they didn't half move. She'd walk you off your feet.

"One day when she lived in Avebury she missed the bus to our house in Marlborough so she just set off and walked about six or seven miles.

"She was in her 80s at the time but didn't think anything of it.

"She took a great interest in politics and she used to read an awful lot.

"She went to night school in the old days when people didn't do that sort of thing."

Mrs Tutty put her aunt's old age down to her steely determination.

"She just had a will to do things," she said. "She certainly enjoyed life and was the type of person that was born before her time."

The funeral was held at Semington Crematorium on January 5.