A REMARKABLE woman who campaigned tirelessly to have a dual carriageway built through the garden of the house she loved near Cricklade has died aged 86.

Journalist and accomplished golfer Diana Holmes lived for more than 30 years in a former farmhouse at Latton, off the A419 between Cirencester and Swindon.

In the 1960s, when she moved to Latton after marrying husband Francis, the A419 was single carriageway from the bottom of Blunsdon Hill to just south of Cirencester.

At peak times the traffic through Latton village was frequently at a standstill and Diana used her position on Latton Parish Council to put pressure on the higher authorities to have a Latton bypass built.

Even though her own house was unaffected by the traffic and that the only possible route for the bypass was over land adjoining the house, Diana lobbied county councils, MPs and Parliament until the Latton bypass was officially adopted as a priority scheme by the Ministry of Transport.

After the road was built in the mid-1990s Diana and Francis moved to Coln St Aldwyns, near Fairford, where they lived until Francis died some 10 years later and Diana moved to Cirencester.

A journalist on Farmers' Weekly in London for many years in the 1950s and '60s, Diana Sherwin later switched to PR and came to the Cotswolds in the 1960s as PR for the Bay Tree Hotel in Burford.

She was later asked to provide PR for Buscot Opera at the National Trust property Buscot Park, near Highworth, where she was introduced by a mutual friend to the opera’s conductor Francis Holmes.

Less than a year later they were married.

Diana took up golf after moving to Latton and soon became a prominent member of Cirencester Golf Club.

She went on to become a single-figure handicap golfer and to represent Gloucestershire at the sport.

She subsequently captained Gloucestershire Ladies in 1979 and 1980, was president of the county from 1987 to 1989 and ultimately became chairman of selectors for the England Ladies' international team.

A love for maps and atlases led Diana to take up cycling, an activity she enjoyed with Francis, and together they cycled from the south of France to the north and later from the east to the west, using routes worked out by Diana.

Diana died at Shipton Under Wychwood last week after a long illness. She is survived by her step-children Andrea, David and Peter.

The funeral will be held at Coln St Aldwyns Church on Friday, June 16, at 3.30pm.