Former secretary of the Oxford Preservation Trust Helen Turner has died aged 74 after suffering a heart attack at her home in Islip.

Helen Turner

At the trust Mrs Turner was the driving force behind the appeal that led to the £250,000 restoration of Magdalen Bridge, after the county council declared it could not afford to restore it.

But she will also be remembered as a champion of the consumer and for her journalism at The Oxford Times, where she was a regular columnist and features editor.

Mrs Turner was born in Birmingham, the daughter of a clergyman.

She came to Oxford in 1951 to read English, before working in a department store and as an air stewardess.

She married physicist Professor Gerard Turner in 1956, and moved to Oxford after Prof Turner was appointed as assistant curator at the History of Science Museum.

The couple were among the founders of the Oxford Civic Society, which Mrs Turner later served as chairman. She became chairman of the Oxford Consumer Group in 1964, and in 1983, secretary of the Oxford Preservation Trust.

They later moved to Islip, where Mrs Turner served in various capacities on the parish council.