Sheila is well known to many members through the Craven Camerata, which she initiated, and as a long standing committee member. She has lived for many years in Craven but came originally from the south of England, training at the Royal College of Music in London. After that she followed a career in musical education, at first teaching in two boarding schools for girls.
She describes being bowled over by the north of England when she came to teach at St Margaret's School, York in 1952 which was the first time she had ever been north of Hampstead! In 1956 she returned south for 10 years, then came back north to Lancashire as a county music advisor. This was followed by eight years lecturing at a College of Education in south London, during which time she bought the cottage in Horton-in- Ribblesdale. Finally, in 1978, she became head of music at Clitheroe Girls Grammar School and was able to settle in Horton.
In 1980 she joined the Heritage Trust committee, and was asked to put on a concert to complement the Elgar exibition in the museum. In 1982 a second concert took place, after which Sheila was asked to do one the following year in Langcliffe Church, and thus Craven Camerata was born. The first three concerts were fund raisers for the museum. In the following eighteen years nearly every church in Craven hosted a concert, including the Methodist church in Settle, and proceeds were shared between the host church and the Trust's historic churches fund.
Sheila has also run a guest house and I would really have liked to be a guest of this lively lady. Although I have outlined her career, it is as somebody with a lot of common sense, friendliness and the ability to get through to the essence of a problem in committee meetings that I have had most to do with her. The members of Craven Camerata will have other memories of multi-faceted Sheila.
M Ellis