A WOMAN who was well known in farming circles in the Richmond area has died at the age of 97.

Alice Porter was born at Waitwith Bank Farm, near Richmond, the youngest child of Jane and John Porter. She had two sisters, Mary and Martha, and a brother, John. The family also farmed at Middlemoor Farm, and then at Brokes Farm, and ran a dairy produce shop in Newbiggin, Richmond.

From the age of 11, Alice would ride daily to and from Richmond High School on her pony, Toby.

Her brother, John, and cousin, Ralph Spensley, drowned in an accident at a quarry in 1930 and, three years later, her eldest sister, Mary, died from meningitis.

Mrs Porter and her husband, Len, were married at Richmond Methodist Church, in 1932. They farmed at Brokes Farm, moved to North Brokes in 1938, and returned to Waitwith Bank in 1940. They had four children, Mary, John, Leonard and Gillian. John died, aged ten, in 1945.

Mr Porter died in 1972 and Mrs Porter continued farming at Waitwith Bank with her daughter and son-in-law, Gillian and Tom Farrow, who breed and show Welsh ponies. Six years ago, she moved to Richmond House home for the elderly, in Richmond.