Judith Taylor (24 Dec 1943 - 8 Aug 2025)

Judith Ann Swan (Ann without an ‘e’), was born to Gladys and John at Marjorie Road in Chaddesden in 1943, in the middle of the second World War. As a premature baby, not expected to survive, she was literally wrapped in cotton wool. Her birthday, Christmas Eve, was a point of consternation as a child, as she received a combined birthday and Christmas present that never quite made up for the two gifts her brothers John and Peter would each receive.

At the age of 10, Judith’s family moved to Belper, where Gladys ran a fruit and veg shop (where Belper Coal Supplies now stands) and John worked for the GPO (now BT). Judith moved to Strutt’s School, and was horrified to find they spoke a different language that she was unable to understand, ‘Ay up, as tha Faatha got issen a new wocking shot?’ (Hello, has your Father got a new working shirt?).

Being close to the Coppice, the family made good friends with the fair folk, who set up their rides and amusement stalls twice a year in Belper. Jean, from one of the fair families, lived with the family over the shop while she was pregnant, to avoid the constant travelling. Judith was 16 when she became Godmother to Jean’s daughter Jeanette. Jeanette’s cousin Jamie also lived with the family, so that he was able to attend school in Belper.

Judith’s first jobs were working for the local companies of Brettles and Blounce, operating a mechanical calculator called a comptometer. She met Heathcote Hunt in Belper, married at the age of 21, and left work when she became pregnant with her daughter Nicola. Judith overheard a woman in a playground calling to her daughter, ‘Nicola’; and thought it an unusual name. Many women in the local area must have had the same experience, as there were 6 ‘Nicolas’ in Nicola’s class at school.

When Heathcote became a professional artist, focusing on landscapes in oil paint, Judith organised his exhibitions at Wirksworth Festival, at home at Sandbed Lane in Bargate and with his contemporaries such as Rex Preston and Elaine Baines, at John Straw’s gallery in Derby.

Following the birth of her son Blaine, Judith started a business selling additive free meat, due to her concern over the use of artificial growth-promoters, colourings and flavourings in food. She separated from Heathcote in 1987, and had a variety of jobs including working for Encyclopaedia Brittanica, cleaning for the owner of an Equestrian Centre and managing a Derby City centre children’s charity ‘Child Concern’, that helped families in crisis; whilst studying psychology with the Open University and earning her degree.

Later in life she re-met, and had a short marriage to Bob Taylor, one of ‘the crowd’ from her teenage years. Judith retired from work in her mid-70’s, her last role involved signing the Official Secrets Act and conducting new passport interviews with a view to counter-terrorism.

Judith adored animals and in her later years came to live with Blaine and his dog Tilly, along with her permanently hungry cat Georgie. Professing that nature was her tonic, Judith enjoyed nothing more than a ‘drive out’ into the Derbyshire countryside, to take coffee and cake with a view over the hills.