BEAMINSTER is in mourning after the sudden death of one of its most colourful – and generous – characters.

Nessie Dear, who died last week aged 52, started her knitting shop Nessie Yarn’s and Crafts in Lynden Way in May 2010 as a way of passing on her skills and love of the craft – because knitting helped her rebuild her life after a devastating stroke at the age of 44.

She said knitting had saved her and she wanted to pass that gift on to others.

Richard Dear, her husband of 33 years, said: “Beaminster will never be the same again.

“She was one of life’s really good people.

“She was always there to help. She was always coming up with ideas to raise money.

“She was never in the best of health but she never let that stop her, she carried on through her pain.

“She had this way of making out that everything was okay.

“She never dwelled on it – she just forged ahead.”

So successful was her first shop in the arcade she moved to bigger premises in the square at the beginning of this year where she continued her charitable works.

She was always coming up with new ideas to help others – setting up a ‘knit and natter’ group who helped her with her projects, which included a knitted Christmas tree for the Weldmar Hospice, the biggest blanket in Dorset for auction for the Beaminster Fund, knitting teddies for a children’s hospice, things for premature babies, or animals for sale at Martin Clunes’ Buckham Fair charities.

She always gave credit to others for their generosity. As she said: “The Beaminster ladies are just brilliant. You only have to say the word charity and they are there straight away.”

Mr Dear is carrying on with the shop for the moment.

He said: “If people keep coming through the door then I will keep going. That could be the deciding factor because it was Nessie that brought them in and could give them all the advice and not just on knitting – on life, on health, it was like a little surgery in here.”

Friend and fellow Beaminster businesswoman Lynne Towers from Pets ’n’ Pics shared a loved of horses with Nessie.

She said: “I was shocked and devastated by the news.

“She was a lovely lady.

“She had a heart of gold and would do anything for anybody.

“She is going to be sorely missed.

“Nessie and I go back 25 years. We knew each other through the horse world with showjumping and dressage. She was a great competitor and still had a love for the horses.”

Nessie Dear’s funeral is at Yeovil crematorium on December 24 at 10am.

She leaves behind a husband, two daughters and a son.