A COUNCIL maintenance worker who was a familiar face around Witney for almost 50 years has died, aged 78.

Mike Harvey, often seen in later years with his faithful springer spaniel Dolly, was born and bred in the town.

He started in 1953 as a trainee groundsman with the-then Witney Urban District Council and was to stay working for local authorities for the next 49 years.

During that time he looked after recreation grounds, cemeteries, playgrounds and parks, as well as carrying out litter bin maintenance and grave digging.

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In 2001 Mr Harvey told the Oxford Mail’s sister paper the Witney Gazette: “They’re all the jobs that everyone forgets about.”

When retiring that year, Mr Harvey set a long service record. Town clerk Judy White said then: “We certainly haven’t had anyone else who can come anywhere near Mike’s length of service.”

Mr Harvey was born in Witney on June 5, 1936. His father, Albert Edward Harvey, was a labourer. Michael grew up with three siblings, Edward, Dennis and Vera, in High Street and attended the Batt CofE Primary School.

In 1950 he took a job as a labourer on a farm, before taking up his job with Witney Urban District Council. Over the course of his five decades in local government he also worked for West Oxfordshire District Council and then Witney Town Council.

Mr Harvey met Doreen Ann Grant in Witney and they married in the town’s register office in 1959. The couple moved to a home in Hailey Road and had their first child, Andrew, in 1959, followed by Trevor in 1966. Mr Harvey’s hobbies included steam rallies and he was interested in ploughing, vintage tractors and horses.

Michael Harvey died in Meadow View Nursing Home, Standlake, on August 27 following a long period of illness. A funeral was held on September 8, at St Mary’s Church, Witney.

Mrs Harvey died of emphysema in 1996, aged 60. He is survived by his sons, four grandchildren, Lisa, Kate, Naomi and Leann, and one great grandson, Tyler.

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