Stan Ford, who ran a shoe repair shop in the city for several decades and was a well known figure in East Oxford, has died just a few months short of his 100th birthday.

Mr Ford, originally from Gilfach Goch in the Rhondda Valley in Wales, moved to Oxford during the Great Depression of the 1920s.

Having left school at a young age, he went to work in the mines with his father, and lived to tell the tale of many explosions, floods and collapses.

His daughter Maureen Cooper said: "He only worked down the mines for a couple of years, and he often used to speak about that time."

When the mines closed in the 1920s, Mr Ford and his family moved to Oxford to find work.

He took on a range of professions, including removal man, taxi driver, golf caddy and projectionist at the cinema in Walton Street, now the Phoenix Picturehouse. He went on to work at Pressed Steel, before becoming a packer for Mowbray where he met his wife Rachel Pantin.

The couple married in 1941 and it was at this time he took to repairing shoes and boots, working with his father at a repair shop in Headington.

He later went on to run his own shop in Magdalen Road, where he lived with his wife and their two children, Maureen and Barry.

When the site of the shop was earmarked for the development of the Pegasus Theatre, he relocated the business to The Plain, St Clements.

He continued to live at his home in Magdalen Road until his death.

Mrs Cooper said: "He was still young at heart and up until the Saturday before he died he was still going out to the garden centre and enjoying coffee and cake.

"I think he stayed so young because he loved to mix with younger people and was always interested in what they had to say."

At the age of 80, Mr Ford took his first trip abroad, travelling to Barbados — though he had to do it without his wife who was scared to fly.

Mrs Cooper said: "She waited for him to see what it was like. The next time they went abroad she came as well on a trip to Spain."

Despite the death of his wife more than four years ago, Mr Ford liked to remain active and kept himself busy.

He passed away peacefully at the John Radcliffe Hospital on September 27.

He is survived by his two children, three grandchildren and two great grandchildren.