Joy Davies obituary

Other lives: Chemist who became a social worker and cared for people with severe learning difficulties

My mother, Joy Davies, who has died aged 89, was a chemist, social worker and passionate advocate for people with severe learning difficulties.

Born in Ormesby, North Yorkshire, to Olive (nee Postgate), a midwife, and Thomas Hansell, a butcher, Joy went to the Cleveland school (now Teesside High) in Eaglescliffe. She left aged 16 and decided against working on the family farm near Swainby in North Yorkshire, choosing instead to join the Ministry of Agriculture, based in Newcastle upon Tyne. Her work testing milk at farms took her all over a region that remained close to her heart all her life.

In the late 1950s, she joined British Titan Products, a company that manufactured titanium oxide, as a chemist, and worked in the company’s laboratories in Billingham, near Middlesbrough. She lived in a bedsit near Albert Park in Middlesbrough and it was there that she met Tony Davies, a technical author for the British Iron & Steel Research Association, whom she married in 1965.

The couple briefly lived near Maidenhead, Berkshire, where Tony got a job working for Ferranti, before moving back to Teesside so that he could study computer science at Teesside Polytechnic (now Teesside University). Joy supported his ambition by working night shifts in the local Tetley’s tea factory for much of the early 70s.

In the early 80s Joy began her own studies, qualified in social services at a college in Middlesbrough, and became a field officer for Cleveland county council, working with people with severe learning difficulties across Teesside. In time she rose to become a deputy manager of adult training centres, working in Grangetown, Hartlepool and Middlesbrough.

Joy and Tony retired in the mid-90s, and she fulfilled her dream of returning to the Yorkshire countryside by moving to a village near Thirsk.

She became a well known and active member of the community, keeping hens, geese and ducks and maintaining a beautiful garden. She led a successful campaign against plans by North Yorkshire police to build a new headquarters in the area, as she was concerned about its proximity to the village school, the increase in traffic and the damage to wildlife in the rural setting.

Joy had a lifelong love of theatre. She acted, directed and designed costumes for the Eaglescliffe Stage Society for many years. Her other passions included nature and sport, specifically tennis, Middlesbrough Football Club and Yorkshire cricket.

Tony died in 2023; Joy is survived by her sons, Andrew and me, and four grandchildren, Laurie, Alec, Georgia and Ben.