STOURBRIDGE has said goodbye to a “formidable” former beauty parlour owner who led a one-woman campaign to call for increased safety in the town’s subways.

Trudy Curnin, who started her own crusade to have the Foster Street underpass closed after she was mugged in 2003, passed away on April 23 and her funeral was held at St Thomas Church, Stourbridge, on Monday (May 9).

The 96-year-old from Parkfield Road was known in the town as a “character who stood up for what she believed in” her nephew Norman Glover said.

He added: “She was very formidable; she had a lot of immeasurable qualities, she was unfortgettable.”

Her campaigning spirit was first sparked, Mr Glover said, when the building of the Ryemarket shopping centre forced the closure of her beauty salon in Talbot Street in the 1970s.

He added: “The MP won her a stay of execution for 12 months but she couldn’t find any more premises because everybody else was moving and she didn’t want to move out of Stourbridge so it finished her business.”

She became even more of a force to be reckoned with in her later years - campaigning for the town’s dingy subways to be made safer after she and her sister were mugged in separate incidents as they walked through the underpasses.

Her impassioned pleas led to a disused kiosk in the Foster Street subway being turned into the country’s first underground police station which was opened by Tory grandee Michael Howard MP (then leader of the Conservatives).

Its success was shortlived - however - and it was later closed.

But Mrs Curnin’s calls for action utlimately resulted in the creation of the surface crossing between Hagley Road and the ring road.

She never approved of the scheme as she wanted a crossing nearer to the bus station - but Stourbridge councillor and council leader Les Jones credits the retired businesswoman as being the inspiration behind it.

He said: “It may not have been ideal but it was a solution that has helped thousands of people.”

Ironically Mrs Curnin, whose husband of over 50 years Eric died in 1994, only used the crossing once before she tripped over in town and broke her hip.

For the last few years she had been housebound and moved into Wychbury Care Home in January before passing away on St George’s Day - on the 60th anniversary of her father’s death.

Mr Glover added: “She was quite an amazing woman. She was one of 11 children and she outlived all her brothers and sisters. Around 60 people attended her funeral which, for a 96-year-old woman, was an amazing turnout.”

Mrs Curnin leaves 18 nieces and nephews.