AVONCROFT Museum, and more importantly Bromsgrove, has lost a man who will not be forgotten and easily replaced with the death of Dr Simon Penn.

I first met Dr Penn, or Simon to anyone who met him, properly in 1997 when the exhibition of historic telephone boxes was opened by the chairman of the BBC Sir Christopher Bland. Knowing I was a lifelong Dr Who fan and with a vintage TARDIS, it was my great pleasure to greet Sir Christopher and Dr Who number four, or Tom Baker. Some of you may remember my photograph in the Advertiser/Messenger at the time.

Simon made me feel very welcome and insisted that he took a backstage, no publicity role that day. It was a great honour to be asked to do this. The day will always be a cherished memory for me.

I will miss Simon, as will a lot of other people who worked with him at Avoncroft and a lot of people who worked with him in Bromsgrove.

He helped put Bromsgrove on the map.

God bless you Simon and my deepest sympathy goes out to his wife and children.

John W Clews

Grafton Crescent

Charford

Bromsgrove