Landlady of county’s ‘friendliest pub’ dies (From Cotswold Journal)

Landlady of county’s ‘friendliest pub’ dies

1:00pm Monday 23rd July 2012 in News

A POPULAR former landlady who helped her pub become known as the friendliest in Worcestershire, has died.

Margaret Gilder died peacefully in her sleep at The Chace Rest Home in Upper Welland, Malvern, on June 11, aged 89. She is survived by her sister Barbara, her children Jane, Sally, Chris and Vicky, nine grandchildren and six great grandchildren.

Mrs Gilder was one of four children born to Captain William Hall and Winifred Hall in Cottingham, East Riding of Yorkshire.

She moved to Shropshire and then Gloucester having become a Land Girl – one of the women drafted to work the fields during the war – at the age of 16-and-a-half. It was in Gloucester that she met her future husband, Edward Harold Gilder, a farmer from Stoke Orchard.

They married in 1943 and lived on the family farm, where they had three of their children. When Mr Gilder’s mother died in 1955, the farm was sold and the couple embarked on a new career as the landlords of the Crown Inn, Peopleton.

They threw themselves into village life and remained at the pub for 21 years, receiving the accolade of “friendliest local in Worcestershire”

in Christmas 1973.

The couple retired from publican life in 1976 and their daughter Sally and her husband Tom Appleton took over the family trade.

During her 50 years in the village, Mrs Gilder served on several committees, hosted fund-raising dinners, was an active member of the Peopleton Players and was an ardent supporter of St Nicholas Church, where she was warden for many years.

Although her beloved husband died in 1989, she remained in Peopleton until 2008, when she moved to a flat in Cherry Orchard, Pershore, and then to The Chace two years ago.

A funeral service took place at St Nicholas Church on Friday, June 22.

Mrs Appleton said: “Mum was always very busy and involved in community life.

People would joke that she ran the village.

“At the funeral there were so many people. She was so well loved and respected.

We’ve been inundated with letters and cards. She loved The Chace and she called it her home. We’ll always be grateful for that.”