Obituary – Marie Elizabeth Haddleton 1929 – 2021

Obituary – Marie Elizabeth Haddleton 1929 – 2021 

It is with great sadness and a heavy heart that I (Marie’s son Mark) am wring this Editorial as an obituary, normally obituaries go elsewhere in the magazine, but this is the most appropriate place this time.

Marie Haddleton passed away in the early hours of Sunday Morning the 18th July 2021. She had not been well for some time but caught COVID 19 and although she gave a desperate fight her age of 92 was always going to be against her.

Marie had been editor of The Hockley Flyer since its inception in the mid 1980’s and of the 432 issues we have published I rarely got a chance to get a word in, she let me write the editorial on only a handful of occasions. Usually she used to say, what am I going to put in the Editorial? I would make a suggestion, which she ignored and used to come up with yet another one, often controversial.

(Also Editor The Jewellery Quarter Heritage Magazine)

Her main achievement was to fight off the Urban Village and get the Jewellery Quarter made into one single Conservation area. Originally it was divided into 3 different Conservation areas, and the strips of land between them were known as ‘corridors’ and developers exploited this and built inappropriate housing. To further enhance the protection, many more buildings were added to the English Heritage conservation list, or listed building making it even more difficult for developers at the time.

‘Cannot’ was not often in her vocabulary and did a great many more things behind the scenes in the JQ.

Marie was on the Jewellery Quarter Conservation Area committee and her advice was often valued. She did not get her way on one occasion, along with the late Ross Bellamy they tried to convince the planning committee to make an exception and were told off in no uncertain terms, something when they got back to the office, we all laughed about, and for years after that!

The Jewellery Quarter has lost its best friend, and I have lost my Editor, Mum, who was also my best friend!
Marie is survived by her son Mark, daughter Susan and granddaughter Emma.

Obituary by Mark Haddleton