Dorrie Ellis was a very lively character who loved dressing up, joining in and socialising.

 

She was born in Cheltenham and was a scholorship girl at Pate's Grammar School. As her family was poor, she could have applied for a grant to buy a bicycle to get to school.  But she refused as her name would have been read out in assembly and so walked the two miles each way every day.

 

She often visited family in Campden as a child and married a local man, Lionel Ellis. They first lived above what is now Drinkwater's Fruit and Vegetable shop in the High Street.  Later they ran a nursery and florist's business in Aston Road.

 

She was very creative not only in her floristry but also in silversmithing, clay modelling, knitting and embroidery.

 

Dorrie was always a snappy dresser and her skill at dressmaking was inherited from her mother who was a milliner.  And for many people in Campden, their abiding memory of Dorrie will be of her marching down the High Street in her red beret.

 

In her will, she particularly wanted a donation to go to the young people of the town and so her daughters, Judith and Mary, chose to support Campden Edge with the retiring collection at her funeral and proceeds from the sale of some of her craft equipment.