A FORMER town mayoress from Holywell has been remembered.

Madeleine Jones served as a town councillor for many years and was involved in Holywell life in many different ways over the years.

She sadly died on July 8 at the age of 91.

She had willed to the town council, the ceramic plate she received from St Gregoire at the time of her visit to Brittany in the course of the town twinning which occurred during her tenure.

Madeleine’s son David Jones visited the town council offices in Holywell’s Bank Place for a socially-distanced presentation of various ceramics, plaques and photographs and also paid tribute to his mother by sharing an extended obituary about her life.

Born Madeleine McKay on July 22, 1929, she moved from Lanarkshire, Scotland to North Wales at the age of three with her mother Catherine Griffin and father Patrick McKay who found work in Bettisfield Colliery where the family resided on the Riverbank estate.

He added: “Following a turn of misfortune where Madeleine’s father got lead poisoning after then working at the Halkyn lead mines, the family moved to Whitford Street, in Holywell, and then subsequently rented rooms at the back of the Feathers Inn before moving to Brynmawr Road in the Strand.

“Upon leaving school, Madeleine found work as a test room worker in Abbey Works, Flint, and spent her free time dancing in Flint and the Quay, travelling to Greenfield on ‘the little train’ and visiting the coast.”

Madeleine married her husband Stuart Jones from Flint in 1952 and subsequently moved to the Holway where they went on to have four boys - David, Alyn, Peter and Anthony.

David said: “Madeleine had inherited distinct political leanings having grown up in a working-class environment.

“In 1950, Madeleine was amongst a group of young supporters who were given a tour of the Houses of Parliament when Irene White was historically elected as East Flintshire MP.

“Madeleine’s support of the Labour party continued throughout her life and was reinforced by Stuart’s own political convictions and Trade Union activism and which later included campaigns to save Shotton Steelworks.

“As for so many others, the closure of Shotton’s ‘heavy end’ brought about redundancy, and uncertainty. As a blast-furnace-man, Stuart became one of the thousands who found themselves jobless.

“But changes however difficult, also present new opportunities. Madeleine and Stuart became prominent local councillors with Stuart taking his turn as Mayor of Holywell in 1987 with Madeleine as Lady Mayoress at his side.”

Continuing with local politics, he tells how Madeleine remained a councillor for many years, became a school governor, was involved in the Friends of the Greenfield Valley.

He continued: “Madeleine became Mayor of Holywell in her own right in 2004 and was heavily involved in the twinning events with St Gregoire, Brittany.

“She was given a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Labour Party in recognition of 50 years membership and activism – and had her picture taken with Tony Blair.

“One of her fondest memories was going down to the St Winefride’s school to help the children with reading. She was very reluctant to give this up, but eventually age and its attendant problems made it too difficult.”

Her son added that she had a ‘long and interesting life’.

“She did things and went places not everyone gets the chance to, least of all a working class girl from ‘The Strand’ who left school at 14 and never lived outside Holywell for the most of her 90 plus years!

“Perhaps in a final flourish of her characteristic stubbornness and flair, she refused to submit easily to the inevitable.

“So it seemed at last she went quietly in her own time and choosing: she died on the morning of her husband, Stuart’s 91st birthday - exactly two weeks short of her own.”