A GRANDMOTHER from Wantage, the owner of a popular garden centre, has passed away.

Muriel Stevenson worked at the Charlton Park Garden Centre in the town from the 1950s until her retirement 10 years ago.

She was born Muriel Caroline Lloyd Smith on March 4, 1925, in West Hanney, where she went to primary school, before passing the 11-plus and getting into Farringdon Girls Grammar School.

She went to university in Brighton to study an art degree, which was interrupted by the Second World War. Muriel later trained as a teacher there and came back home to teach at West Hanney.

She worked as a teacher for nine years and 273 days and it was a long-standing joke in the family how close she came to receiving her teacher’s pension for 10 years’ work.

She met her husband Peter in an evening game of badminton in 1951, when she discovered he was a keen gardener.

They married on June 7, 1954, and Mrs Stevenson joined him to work at Charlton Park Garden Centre. They grew plants to be sold at markets in Wantage, Abingdon and Newbury.

She had three children – Richard, 57, Phillip, 53, and Ian, 49. Richard joined the business full time in 1971.

Mrs Stevenson retained a keen interest in gardening and education all her life and enjoyed sharing them with her eight grandchildren.

She enjoyed drawing and was a keen follower of the Boxing Day Hunt. She enjoyed travelling with her sister Margaret.

Muriel died aged 87 on October 22 at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford with Peter at her side.

A funeral service will take place in St Peter’s and St Paul’s Church in Wantage today from 2pm, with donations going to a trust at John Radcliffe Hospital.