A WELL-KNOWN Oxford stone and wood carver, whose work can be seen around the city, has died at the age of 85.

One of Heather Howes’s, nee Harms, best-known carvings is the plaque at Balliol College, Broad Street, marking where the three bishops – Latimer, Ridley and Cranmer – were burned at the stake.

Ms Howes, right, was born in Chesterfield, Derbyshire, in 1926, but received the latter part of her schooling, and the first part of her art education in Aberdeen, Scotland, specialising in sculpture at Gray’s School of Art.

She then spent five years at the Royal Academy Schools, London, winning silver and bronze medals.

Ms Howes moved to Oxford in the 1950s, and began a career carving work in wood and stone.

She also taught art and craft at Headington School. After her retirement, she moved to Brill, near Thame, and became chairman of the Buckingham Labour Party and a district councillor until 1999.

Ms Howes enjoyed life drawing, painting and natural history.

She died from cancer on March 2 and is survived by her former husband, Gilbert Howes, a retired Oxford architect, their children Charlotte, Georgina, Jonathan and Jeremy, and grandchildren Peter and Jonathan Kruip.