A NURSE and community stalwart is to have a new road named in honour of her contribution to life in Littlemore.

Astrop Lane will be named after Louisa Astrop, a parish councillor in the village for 28 years.

Mrs Astrop also worked as a community psychiatric nurse at Littlemore Hospital for about 20 years.

She died in December 2005, aged 83.

Parish clerk Pauline Jones came up with the idea of naming the new road, which will serve a new 21-home development off Railway Lane, after Mrs Astrop.

The development should be complete by April and will be run by housing association Soha.

The parish council is also considering putting up a plaque at the development to explain Mrs Astrop’s contribution to the community. City councillors Gill Sanders and John Tanner have backed the suggestion.

Mrs Jones said: “I worked very closely with her, because as well as being chair of the parish council, she was also chairman of the amenities committee.

“She was lovely, very caring and every Christmas she used to buy a bottle of whisky and we used to meet in the pavilion with the workforce and they used to have a drink and a mince pie. It was all out of her own pocket, that was the kind of person she was.

“In the last years, she was unable to get to the recreation ground, so we used to go to her flat.”

Born in Marlow, Buckinghamshire, the mother-of-three moved to Chinnor, near Thame, with her husband Bob, to run her grandmother’s Silver Wings Cafe.

However, Mr Astrop became ill and the family moved to Thomson Terrace, in Littlemore, in 1966. Mr Astrop died six years later.

Mrs Astrop took a job as an auxiliary nurse at Littlemore Hospital and completed formal nursing training after a doctor told her she would be good at the job.

For most of her career, she worked for the Group Homes Association, helping to rehabilitate patients in the community.

Her youngest daughter, Penny Astrop, of Warborough, said: “We’re absolutely delighted and very proud, because she was quite an unsung hero and lots of people knew her, but she never sought recognition.

“She would be so pleased and proud because locally she gave a lot of her time. It’s the perfect memorial to her.”

It is not the first time the parish council has named a new road after a local person.

Medhurst Way was named after a former headteacher of Speedwell School, Miss Marjorie Medhurst, and David Nicholls Close was named after David Nicholls, the former vicar of Littlemore Church, while Ledger Close recalls Bessie Ledger, a former parish, district and county councillor.

Parish council chairman Anne Mogridge said: “It’s a way of recognising what they have done.”