A CHERRY tree has been planted in memory of a popular Wolverley man in the grounds of the village surgery.

Family and friends of Bill Cox, who died last year, aged 95, gathered to watch the planting ceremony last Thursday.

Mr Cox looked after the grounds at Wolverley Surgery until six months before he died and planted a double flowering cherry tree in memory of his wife, Jessie, in the grounds in 2003.

Practice manager, Paul Copsey, said: "Bill was our gardener for 14 years at the surgery. He was very well liked and very well respected. He did a brilliant job and we wanted a mark of respect for him. His wife died three years ago and then he did a planting ceremony and we decided to do exactly the same for him."

Mr Cox's granddaughter, Michelle Walton, said: "It was a very appropriate gesture because grandad was a horticulturist.

"Dr Kevin O'Connor gave a really lovely speech. The speech he gave summed up how well loved and respected my granddad was in the local community.

"I think my grandad would have been very pleased to see his great-grandsons did the planting.

"I hope they did it correctly and that he would have approved," she added.

Mr Cox, who grew up in Wolverley, was well known by villagers and enjoyed entertaining children by organising Christmas parties and dressing up as Father Christmas.

He was awarded a pint of mild a day for life in 2001 in recognition for having been a drinker at the village's Queen's Head pub, for almost 75 years.