Street name honours Sheila

But Sheila Child's work will be enshrined for all time by the new housing named after her. The occasion also saw Cllr Stuart Earl name the 19-home development off Springfield Road "Sheila Child Close."

Adrian and his father Peter Cranwell-Child were guests of honour at Tuesday's ceremony. Rother Homes has created a mixture of 19 three and two-bedroomed terraced houses on the former furniture repository site.

Seventeen are for rent and two will offered on a shared ownership basis by Orbit Housing Association. The first tenants are expected to move in within days.

Sheila Child, who died last November after a four-year fight against cancer, served on the former Rother tenants' consultative group and latterly on the board of Rother Homes.

The Town Mayor said: "Today is a day of mixed emotions I am sure for all the family. And it is for me too because I had known Sheila since I was a young lad of 22 or 23 delivering bread to L'Avenir Hotel (which Sheila and Peter ran)."

Many years later their paths crossed once more when Sheila was campaigning to help improve Sidley.

He said: "The one thing you could say about Sheila, she inspired people to do things."

She had made her mark on the community.