TRIBUTES have been paid to a well-known Yorkshire Dales woman.

Agnes Beresford died on April 17 at the Friarage Hospital, in Northallerton, aged 92.

Mrs Beresford was a regular worshipper at St Margaret's Church, in Hawes.

She was a member of the town's Mother's Union and Dale End Club and Women's Institute, where she served on several committees.

Mrs Beresford was born at West End Farm, Lunds, near Hawes; the fourth child of the late Wilson and Margaret Scarr.

She left school at 14 to work on the family farm. In 1933, she moved with her family to Yore House Farm, Lunds.

Five years later, she married George Beresford and the couple farmed at Deepdale, Buckden.

After two years, they moved to Kidstones Farm, in Bishopdale, where they farmed for 26 years.

The couple then ran a bed and breakfast business at Brandymires, in Hawes.

When her husband died in 1982, Mrs Beresford moved to Stoneleigh, Hawes.

The last two years of her life were spent at the Millings nursing home, in Bedale.

Her niece, Audrey Thornborrow, from upper Swaledale, said: "Friendship was something she valued highly. Last Christmas, she was reminded that she had written every year to Joyce Dawson, a former Burtersett resident who emigrated to South Australia 40 years ago.

"It was also obvious from all the visitors who called to see her at the Millings that she had a wide circle of friends. They came not just from the Dales, but from across the country."

Many of Mrs Beresford's friends and family attended a funeral service at St Margaret's Church, Hawes, last month.