Tributes have been paid to a committed church member and long serving law firm secretary who has died.

Margaret Waddington, who lived at Long Lee, died in Airedale Hospital last Thursday. She was 82.

She had begun her career at Keighley Laboratories, in South Street, but started working as a secretary at Turner and Wall solicitors in 1948.

She stayed at the firm until her retirement in 1984.

Turner and Wall senior partner Adrian Waterhouse said Miss Waddington had been very protective when he joined the business.

"She wouldn't let anyone dump anything on me," he said. "If a file arrived on my desk with a note saying you sort this out', she'd send it right back to whence it came with a no, you sort this out'. She was a proud, forthright person, you didn't mess with her, but she was a very warm character and everyone liked her.

"She was always immaculate both in her appearance and her work - she was the model employee. In retirement I believe that she was actively involved with her local church and was a great cat lover."

Bill Clayton - secretary of St Barnabas Church council, where Miss Waddington was heavily involved in activities - said she was a community-minded person.

"She was a very determined lady with firm views but everybody got on with her," he said.

He added she played an important part in a campaign to ensure a silver birch tree, in the grounds of the former Long Lee School, was retained when the school closed. The tree now forms part of the landscape at the Long Lee surgery.

Miss Waddington's funeral service will be held at St Barnabas Church, Thwaites Brow, on Monday, 10.45am. There will then be a cremation at Oakworth Crematorium.