A tireless promoter of Hereford and its history has been granted the freedom of the city.

Jean O’Donnell was presented with the surprise honour by city mayor Mark Dykes at the Castle House hotel, while celebrating her 90th birthday with friends and family last Thursday (July 14).

“Jean has had immense impact on the cultural life and tourism of the city, and has been a passionate guide herself for those who wish to explore it,” the council’s information officer Connor Powell said.

Having moved to Hereford in 1960 when husband Dennis was made headmaster in Bromyard, she began a long involvement with the Workers Educational Association (WEA) in the West Midlands, both organising and delivering courses.

With the WEA, in the late 1960s Jean helped excavate Hereford’s city walls and worked to raise interest in them, ensuring they remain a feature of the city to this day.

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She also has an “exceptional” knowledge of Herefordshire’s churches, according to the WEA, and encouraged and supported many local history groups, even bringing them together in an annual conference begun in 1978.

In 1980 Jean asked the then Mayor of Hereford, Mary Bew, to support a new Guild of Tourist Guides to help visitors enjoy the historic city and so boost tourism.

She was able to draw on members of her local history class to be trained as the first of the city’s volunteer guides, and thereafter continued to run WEA classes on historic Hereford, mainly to train further city guides.

An enthusiastic tour guide herself, “she also conveys her passion for preservation and sensitive urban development”, the WEA said.

She has also written a biography of the city’s famous Victorian philanthropist the Revd John Venn, and served as president of the Woolhope Naturalists’ Field Club.

She was awarded an MBE in 2011 for services to the community.