This week we remember one of Marlow’s most-loved characters who died ten years ago at the age of 80 after a tragic accident, when she fell outside her home in Bisham. I refer to Patricia Burstall, whose death in March 2016 prompted an obituary in the Bucks Free Press written by then Marlow Society chairman Martin Blunkell, with input from friends and family. Martin also gave a most moving tribute on the Marlow FM radio station.

Michael Eagleton also devoted his Nostalgia page to Patricia’s life as an author, historian, expert on local churches, and devoted cyclist and walker. He wrote “Riding her tall and vintage bicycle with a shopping basket, she was a familiar sight in the streets and crossing the bridge, until ‘doctor’s orders’ regarding the bicycle were issued in 2015. I don’t think she had ever owned a car and lived, as long as can be remembered in a thatched cottage on Bisham Road.

As an author, an early book was ‘The Golden Age of The Thames (published by David & Charles) and it includes a fairly youthful picture of Patricia, along with a publisher’s note about her daily journey to work (Back then she worked as a researcher at the BBC). This, and just one of the many vintage Thames photographs and etchings, is included above. Much later, and completed just three years ago [ie 2013], was ‘The Golden Age of The Bicycle’ (Little Croft Press), which received reviews as the “definitive history”.

All Saints Church, Bisham, was a major interest of hers and her informative tours were always popular. The Marlow All Saints church was also given much attention and she had catalogued almost every grave in the churchyard, going to great lengths to decipher and photograph the faded descriptions on the memorials. She once told me that this was 25 years work.

She had been a guest on Marlow FM on five occasions, usually coming in to publicise the annual Bisham Gardens Open Days which she organised. The technicalities of a radio studio – headphones, microphones, etc, held no worries for her and she chatted with ease, usually selecting one of Handels’ works as her musical choice. She was also fully computer literate, and her email address showed a little touch of her dry humour: ‘bicycling burstall’.

Along with her neighbours just over Marlow Bridge, Patricia suffered badly in the floods of 2014. The picture lower right was taken by her church colleague Robert Frost and shows Patricia at her upstairs window, with the muddy waters having crept into her ground floors rooms.

Although known by so many, Patricia was a very private and modest person, and last year [2015] the Queen’s Award of the B.E.M. was hardly mentioned, neither was her 80th birthday in February [2016].”