Grace Selwood

Mrs Selwood, who was the former landlady of The Rising Sun in Christian Malford, died at the home she shared with husband Jack in Severn Bridge, on July 23 at the age of 84.

Born in Lincoln in 1925 to parents Nellie and John, Mrs Selwood was part of a big family, with four brothers and three younger sisters.

She moved to Wiltshire at the age of 21 with her husband Jack. The couple met in Lincoln while Mr Selwood was based there as part of the Royal Signals.

Her daughter Shirley, 57, of Sutton Benger, said: “The story goes that mum would often wave at dad as he went past her home. They lost touch for a while then met up a while later. They ended up marrying on December 21 which was the shortest day of the year and it snowed like mad.”

The couple then moved to Seagry, where Mr Selwood, now 88, was originally from and lived with his parents.

The couple later built their own house in Seagry and had four children – Tony, Nick, Dermo and Shirley. They also had seven grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

Mrs Lewis said: “I’m not sure if she had always wanted a large family, but I always joked that as soon as they had me they had reached perfection so they stopped there.

“Family was definitely important to mum.”

In 1978, the family moved to Rowden Road in Chippenham before moving to Christian Malford when they took over at The Rising Sun in 1981.

“Mum had a few part time jobs when we were all at school like cleaning jobs,” said Mrs Lewis.

“Then one day we all just sat down and talked about buying a pub and went from there. We were at the Rising Sun for 14 years and mum was a great landlady because she was such a sociable person.”

The family have asked that nobody wears black to the funeral at Mrs Selwood’s request and have asked for donations in her memory to be made to the Great Western Air Ambulance Service.

Donations can be made to Jones and Son Funeral Directors in Chippenham.