TRIBUTES have been paid to a popular elderly woman who died after a road crash in Tiptree.

Roddy Ashworth

TRIBUTES have been paid to a popular elderly woman who died after a road crash in Tiptree.

Isabel Patmore, 96, was crossing Rectory Road and pulling a shopping trolley when she was in collision with a black Proton car.

Mrs Patmore, who was known in the village as Bell, was taken by ambulance to Colchester General Hospital after the accident, which happened at around 4.35pm on Wednesday.

The driver of the Proton, a 38-year-old man from Tiptree, was uninjured in the crash.

A spokeswoman for the East of England Ambulance Service said that Mrs Patmore, who used a walking stick, was treated at the scene for a head injury.

She added that the Essex Air Ambulance had flown to a location near the scene but that Mrs Patmore was taken to hospital by a land ambulance, where she died shortly after arrival.

A family statement said that Mrs Patmore was born in Bow, east London, but spent her early life in Liverpool.

She moved with her family to Walthamstow in her teenage years and started her working life in the tailoring business.

In 1936 she married Ronald, a bricklayer, and had two children, a son and daughter.

But during the war, Mrs Patmore and her children were evacuated to St Albans, Hertfordshire, while her husband served in the Army with the Royal Engineers.

In 1972 Isabel and her husband moved to Tiptree to be near her daughter who also lived in the village. Ronald died in 1975.

Isabel was an early member of the 'Windmill Green Club' in Tiptree where she was well known. She also enjoyed outings with a local group known as the 'Ramblers Club'.

A keen knitter, she provided numerous items of clothing for her two children, six grandchildren, and eight great-grandchildren.

Her daughter, Maureen Imhof, said: “Mum was a wonderful lady, very caring, and very loving.

Nothing was ever too much trouble for her.

“Everybody who knew her loved her, and will miss her greatly.”