A great grandmother known to generations of Bradford-ians as 'Dolly the Decorator' has died at the age of 83.

Dolly Howroyd was a living legend in the Haworth Road area of the city.

She was the city's first female painter and decorator - starting up in business in the late 1940s and continuing to decorate other pensioners' homes into her 70s.

She never drove and used to walk to all her jobs, lugging her heavy equipment over her shoulder even though she was only 4ft 11ins tall.

"She travelled on foot all the time, with a ladder on one shoulder, steps on the other, paste table under one arm and buckets and brushes on the other arm," said her daughter, Jean.

"She was still decorating into her 70s but my brother persuaded her to stop after she had a bad fall off a ladder. He took away all her equipment - it was the only way."

Born in Undercliffe, Mrs Howroyd was brought up in West Bowling but lived most of her married life on the Haworth Road estate. "She must have decorated most of the houses on that estate," her daughter said.

In between decorating work she devoted herself to taking in stray cats, and accumulated 13 by the time she quit her flat to move in with her daughter Jean five years ago.

Mourners at Friday's funeral at St Martin's Church in Haworth Road will be asked to donate to the Prune Park cat rescue centre in Allerton.

Mrs Howroyd's husband, Jack, died 20 years ago but she is survived by her daughter Jean, son Geoff, three grandchildren and a great granddaughter.

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