Plaque to honour Nurse on Call writer a step closer
Efforts to honour the memory of a nurse and best-selling author with a blue plaque have taken a step closer after attracting hundreds of pounds in funding.
The heritage sign will be installed to mark the achievements of the late Tipton district nurse and Nurse on Call writer Edith Cotterill who died, aged 80, in 1997.
Members of Tipton Civic Society and the Jubilee Park community have been working in partnership to raise money to cover the £500 cost of the plaque plus a special unveiling ceremony.
The effort has so far raised £600 with the help of residents and businesses based in the town and Great Bridge.
There will be a fundraising bric-a-brac sale towards the project on September 8 at Jubilee Park Community Centre, in Powis Avenue, Tipton, from 10am to 2pm to give residents an opportunity to support the plaque fund.
Educated at Wolverhampton Girls High School, Mrs Cotterill, formerly of Horseley Road, Tipton, took up writing after the tragic death of her teenage daughter Judith from a brain tumour.
She penned Nurse on Call in 1986 about the trials and tribulations of working as a district nurse in the 1950s West Midlands and made it into the Sunday Times Best Sellers chart.
Christine Lee, of the organising team, said:"When I first came across the books by Edith Cotterill I never laughed so much when reading. She was really funny.
"Now the community is getting together to have a blue plaque put up on the wall at the Jubilee Park centre in her honour as a district nurse and writer from this area.
"We've so far raised £600 with the help of donations from residents and the shops in the area which have been very generous. A lady from the area designed a special poster and the shops put them up for us to advertise the project.
"People donated from £5 to £100 and it's all helping to offset the costs. In addition to the plaque we're putting on a buffet for the guests at the unveiling ceremony and any remaining proceeds will be donated to the Owen Street Tree of Light display."
The plaque will be officially unveiled by the Mayor of Sandwell Councillor Mushtaq Hussain at a separate event later this month.
The committee praised the sponsors including Cotterills Farm Housing Management Co-operative, Ian Smith Group, butchers' Alan Warwick, Blue Mountain Grill, Yankee Candle, Black Country Chippy, estate agent Paul Dubberley, Great Bridge Post Office, and Jubilee Park Costcutter for their generosity.
