Kathy
Staff (12th July 1928 to 13th December 2008)
I’ve been looking for the graves
of famous people for years but oddly I’ve never searched for the bones of a famous
person who lived in Dukinfield where I live. It’s Kathy Staff who played
harridan Nora Batty in Britain’s longest running sitcom Last of the Summer Wine. I don’t think I ever saw her in the street
or a shop (saw Audrey from Coronation
Street once though.) I’ve probably not looked before as she’s buried in
Dukinfield Cemetery where my mum was cremated.
I spent about forty minutes strolling around and
deduced Kathy may have been cremated as there was no sign of her in the row of
graves dated in 2008 when she died. However I’ve learnt that councils run out
of space and bury people in other sections of cemeteries and that’s what may
have happened here. Kathy was buried near people who died many years before.
Her real name was Minnie Higginbottom and she
started acting aged 18, touring repertory companies in 1946 under the name of
Katherine Brant. Aged 23 she got married to John Staff having met him while
both auditioning for Castle Haven,
Yorkshire TV's first soap opera. She stepped away from acting to raise their
two daughters. In the mid-thirties she started working as an extra for Granada
Television in Manchester. For six years she was Doris Luke in Crossroads and appeared in other
well-known shows like Coronation Street,
Open All Hours, Dawson's Weekly and The
Benny Hill Show. She trod the theatre boards too and even appeared in six
films.
All that seemed to be preparation for the part of
northern battle axe Nora Batty who was known and loved by millions in Last Of The Summer Wine. Nobody could
play the dragon with curlers, wrinkled stockings and razor-sharp tongue like
she did. She played the character in 243 episodes of the Yorkshire-based
comedy, beginning in the first episode in January 1973 until 2008 (the year she
died.) When she played Nora she had to be trussed into a man's vest on to which
padding had been sewn. "After all," she remarked, "I'm size 16
and she's a 22."
Shortly after the death of actor Bill Owen (Compo)
in 1999 she said things weren't the same and left the sitcom. However she would
later return and remain with the show until her death. Privately she was unlike
the harridan she played - a gentle woman, enjoying collecting antiques and
listening to classical music. After a contented fulfilled life she died of a
brain tumour aged 80 at Willow Wood Hospice surrounded by her family.
Not far from the cemetery is St Mark's Church and
there’s a wee blue plaque on the wall dedicated to Kathy. I went to have a look
one evening. Here she performed in her first pantomime as a girl, attended two
Sunday school sessions and two services on the Sabbath and the funeral service
was held here, too. She was quite religious (leaving Crossroads as the storylines were getting too sexy.) This Northern
lass was solid gold - looking after the congregation like a mother hen,
visiting them when ill and arranging outings.
Being a geek I also called at Willow Wood Hospice where a good life
ended (I’ll probably drop off the perch in there myself.)
A salute for a block of solid gold…
Willow Wood Hospice where Kathy
passed away…
