Robin Norbury

WILLIAM Robin Norbury, whose work as an environmental champion and peace campaigner benefited his adopted home town of Barnsley, has died aged 78.

He was also a local advocate for improved support for carers of mental health sufferers.

He played a leading role in establishing the Trans Pennine Trail, Old Moor Wetlands Centre, now a Royal Society for the Protection of Birds' site, and Elsecar Heritage Centre. He was also vice-chairman of Dearne Valley Groundwork Trust, and a trustee of Wentworth Castle since 2004, where he played a significant role in the rescue and revival of the historic estate.

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Born in Coventry, Robin Norbury remembered the blitz and firestorm which devastated the city in November 1940, killing hundreds of civilians. His family then moved to Leicester. After attending the Friends School at Sibford, a Quaker boarding school near Banbury, he became a conscientious objector to National Military Service so joined the Friends Ambulance Unit (FAU), working as an orderly on a cancer ward at Bradford Royal Infirmary.

He returned to Leicester to attend art college and there met and married Margaret Hatton, with whom he had four children. He trained as a teacher, taught at Stratford Grammar School and lived in Upminster, taking his two-year-old son on the first CND Aldermaston march in 1958, and went again 50 years later.

The family moved to Yorkshire in 1964 when he became a lecturer at

Bretton Hall College, near Wakefield, in the new discipline of environmental studies, working under the inspiring and radical leadership of Sir Alec Clegg.

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They lived firstly in Denby Dale – where they were known as "the family that missed the pie" for moving in three days after the first pie festival for 36 years – then Woolley, and Haigh Hall. He oversaw the college's acquisition of an historic collection of farm machinery and helped set up the first exhibition at what is now the Yorkshire Sculpture Park.

He was also active in Barnsley Quaker Meeting and was Quaker chaplain at Wakefield Prison.

Taking early retirement in 1981, he was elected as a Labour councillor to Barnsley Council, representing Darton ward from 1983 to 1999. He was chairman of both the housing and planning committees, and after stepping down was co-opted on to the environment scrutiny commission.

As a councillor, he played a major role in linking with other local authorities to establish the Trans Pennine Trail for walkers and cyclists from Liverpool to Hull via Barnsley in 1989, later linking with Europe's long distance footpath from Cork to Istanbul. During that time the trial won the Amazing Space category of the 2006 National Lottery awards competition.

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He supported South Yorkshire's miners during the miners' strike of 1984-1985 which, he believed, led to his telephone being tapped by the authorities. He was also in Barnsley CND and the Barnsley Stop the War campaign, and at the height of the Cold War helped set up the Barnsley branch of the British Soviet Friendship Society, persuading the council to twin with the Ukrainian mining town of Gorlovka.

Experience within the family led him to work for better support for patients and families of people with mental illness. He was on the regional carers' group of the Making Space charity, and championed carer involvement in the health service through Barnsley Arena and the Patient and Public Involvement Forum. He helped set up the Barnsley Carers' Garden and with his wife was named Barnsley Carer of the Year 2008.

When his wife was diagnosed with a terminal illness only months after celebrating their Golden Wedding in 2007, he felt privileged to use his FAU hospital experience to nurse her at home until her death in February 2008.

His quiet and kindly demeanour hid a fire for his passions. A scholarly person with a fund of stories and memories, he was also a skilled oil painter, woodworker, poultry keeper and gardener. He is survived by his children George, Helen, Harry and Isobel and six grandchildren.

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