Botley and west Oxford has lost one of its most colourful characters with the death of farmer, Bill Grant, at the age of 92.

Born and bred in the area, Mr Grant started work at the age of 13, as an office boy and messenger for the Oxford Union.

It was there that he watched with interest the debating skills of such political giants as Stanley Baldwin, Ramsay MacDonald and Lloyd George.

His love of horses stemmed from an early age, when he used to travel to visit relations in Calgrove on a carrier's cart, sitting alongside the driver.

As a young man, he used to take a horse on the train to the Bicester Hunt when carriages were specially provided for horses and their grooms, and while working for the Co-operative Society, he used to ride through Kennington and Boar's Hill to collect insurance premiums.

After wartime service at Morris Motors, repairing RAF fighter aircraft with the Civilian Repair Organisation, he eventually became a full-time farmer, renting 90 acres at Osney Mead.

He and his wife, Jean, whom he married in 1938, lived in a caravan on their land at Ferry Hinksey Road until the late 60s, when they moved to a site they had farmed for years just off the A34 near Harcourt Hill.

Jean, who worked at Webbers in the High Street, Oxford, died in 1998.