A WOMAN who championed the arts in Bury has died, aged 89.

Diana Childs, known as Tom, worked as a teacher at the Bury School of Arts and Crafts for more than 30 years until her retirement in the late 1970s.

She was a keen artist and sculptor herself and was commissioned by Bury Council to make a three-dimensional relief of the borough's coat of arms for the council chamber at Bury Town Hall in the 1970s.

Mrs Childs grew up in Liverpool and studied for a degree at the Liverpool School of Art, where she met husband Alan. They lived together in Heywood Street, Bury.

Mr Childs, who died five years ago, became a principal at the Bury School of Arts and Crafts and later chairman of Bury Metropolitan Arts Association.

A passion for art seemed to run in the family.

Her father, Edward Carter Preston, who gave her the nickname Tom' when she was a toddler, was a renowned sculptor and medallist, and four of her six children went on to work in the arts.

Stephen Childs (60), one of four brothers and an art lecturer at Blackburn College, said: "She didn't see art as an elitist thing. I think she was drawn to teaching and promoting art in adult education because she believed that it could help people from all backgrounds to enrich their lives and find fulfilment."

Mrs Childs died peacefully on Thursday last week, having resided for the past five years at Brookdale Nursing Home in Chesham Crescent.

Her funeral will be held at Overdale Crematorium, Bolton, at 2pm today.