LONG-serving Hambledon Parish Council clerk Jane Woolley MBE has retired after 20 years of dedication and hard work.

Miss Woolley’s contribution to the community was recognised in 2009 when she was made an MBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list for her voluntary service to Hambledon.

In addition to serving as parish clerk , she was instrumental in setting up the Hambledon Village Trust, and celebrated her 70th birthday by walking 70km in 70 hours to raise £7,000 for a shop re-fit.

On her 80th birthday in 2016, she undertook another fund-raising walk, this time a half-marathon, to raise more than £2,000 to pay for an outside toilet at the shop, for the use of customers including those with disabilities.

At a retirement party hosted by the parish council chairman, John Anderson thanked her for the guidance and support she had given him and his colleagues and praised her for her “steely determination, great eye for detail and always ensuring that correct procedures were followed”.

Miss Woolley will continue her work with the Village Trust and to co-edit the Hambledon Parish Magazine.

Her successor Caroline White (pictured above) took up her new role on January 1.