A COMPREHENSIVE collection of the work of artist Margaret Calkin James, formerly of Chipping Campden, was on display for the royal visitor at Number 8's official opening.

Mrs Calkin James, right, was a designer, calligrapher and painter working from the 1920s through to the late 1960s, when she suffered a stroke which left her paralysed down her right side.

Despite the disability, she taught herself to do wool embroidery and some of that work will be on display, as well as five paintings from her time spent at Lapstone Farm, Chipping Campden, during the Second World War. They include one of Lapstone Farm itself and another of Dovers Hill,

Her daughter, Elizabeth Argent, of Alcester, who has written a book on her mother, which has just been reprinted and will be on sale at Number 8.

She said: "Her determination after the stroke was an indication of her wonderful attitude to life."

Mrs Calkin James died in 1985 and the comprehensive display covered the period from 1915, when she won the Queen's Scholarship, the highest award at the then Central School of Arts and Crafts in London, up to the 1970s.