The ups and ups of one lady who managed to pack more in to a single lifetime than most could ever dream.

The Reverend Muriel Studholme (nee Farrer) has died in the Good Companions Retirement Home at Silloth.

Her life began on the October in 1925 at Ellonby and she spent her formative years in the farming community round Skelton.

At the end of her schooling at Queen Elizabeth’s Grammar School in Penrith, she missed some vital exams due to dental problems,but she managed to attend the Avery Hill Teacher Training College without an interview.

A new school at Inglewood had been built by 1950 in the south Carlisle suburb of Harraby and her father urged her to apply for the Headship.

She bought a new outfit and treated the exercise as a dry run.

The interview panel asked her about the importance of weights and measures to which she cheekily responded the children needed to know, when ordering drink, the difference between a pint and a quart.

She got the job aged 25 and set up the new school during the Summer holiday.

She remained at Inglewood until she married Ernest Studholme and went to live on the farm Westnewton.

When their daughter Annabelle was coming up to school age, Muriel got the call to take over the Headship at Oulton school with Annabelle accompanying.

During a severe flood, Muriel drove the tractor from Westnewton to Oulton to the delight of the scholars.

In their retirement from farming Ernest, Muriel and Annabelle moved to Springfield near Dundraw and set up a cake shop next to the Library in Wigton.

It was an overnight success with fresh baked produce available to early morning shift workers and school students.

Ernest died in 1977 but Muriel’s baking continued into her retirement from the shop and at home she and her many helpers regularly churned out all sorts of cakes which would be delivered in visits to parishioners.

Bishop Ian Harland approached her after a service and asked Muriel when he should ordain her and she quickly replied “Well I’m seventy now, so you better get a move on!”.

She was one of the first women to be ordained (Deacon) in Carlisle diocese in 1996 and there was a huge celebration in a barn in Dundraw.

Muriel Isobel Studholme 16th October 1925 – 16th March 2021.