Tributes to much loved Spalding woman Jane

Family and friends have paid tribute to a former teacher and choir member from Spalding who has passed away, aged 78.

Jane Hill, part of South Holland Singers, the Mirinesse Singers and Cantemus, a Spalding-based chamber choir with whom she sang for 30 years, died in hospital on Sunday.

Mrs Hill, wife of the Reverend David Hill who was vicar at churches in Lutton and Pinchbeck, moved to South Holland with her husband in 1968 after working as a bilingual secretary in London and Geneva, Switzerland.

After gaining a degree in Education, Mrs Hill taught at the former Peele Community College (now University Academy Long Sutton) and Donington Cowley Endowed Primary School.

In recent years, she was part of a team from the University of Lincoln's National Centre for Food Manufacturing (NCFM) in Holbeach who taught English as a second language to factory workers in the area originally from eastern Europe.

As well as her husband, Mrs Hill is survived by three children and 12 grandchildren.

Mr Hill said: "Jane was the ideal vicar's wife, although teaching was her main thing and she set up the first pre-school playgroup in Lutton in 1968.

"She was an enthusiastic and talented singer who will also be remembered as a vibrant and sociable member of the community."

Tamara Harte, chairman of South Holland Singers, said: "It was with great sadness that we learned of Jane's passing.

"She was a long-standing and very popular member of South Holland Singers, her lovely soprano was a great asset to the choir and her welcoming and bubbly personality was so endearing to everyone who met her.

"We shall all miss her very much."

Samantha Graper, musical director of South Holland Singers, said: "I sang with Jane in Cantemus and then she sang for me in the Mirinesse Singers and South Holland Singers.

"She was just a lovely, lovely person, warm, friendly and a really good musician as well.

"We did lots of different types of music with the Mirinesse Singers, but she always embraced everything and she never grumbled.

"Jane was a really important part of the Mirinesse Singers and South Holland Singers because she read music well, but she would always make new people welcome also.

"She will be greatly missed by everybody who knew her in both choirs, leaving a big hole that won't be filled."

Rachel Bowser, who worked with Mrs Hill at the NCFM, said: "Jane was an excellent teacher, terribly conscientious and well-liked by her students.

"She had a wealth of knowledge in education from her time at Donington Cowley Endowed Primary School, but she was also a family friend and a lovely person who we had known since David was the vicar of Pinchbeck."