MUCH loved Farnham resident Jean Parratt MBE has died aged 81.

A pillar of the community, Mrs Parratt was a teacher, historian, researcher, journalist, author, raconteur, and a loving mother, wife and grandmother.

She wrote a number of illustrated books on Farnham including highly regarded pamphlets on the ‘Ghosts’ and ‘The Pubs and Inns’ of the town.

Mrs Parratt was made MBE in 2004 for ‘Service to the Community of Farnham’, characteristically joking that her MBE stood for a Member of Britain’s Eccentrics.

A mine of local information, she was reporter and researcher for the monthly newspaper ‘The Farnham Diary’, edited by her husband Ted, from 2004 to 2015.