A MUCH-LOVED grandfather who spent his life giving to the community has died.

Dick Hayward, of Great Bromley, died, aged 87, on St George’s Day.

He had been in Seven Rivers Cheshire Home for three years after suffering a huge stroke in 2011.

Mr Hayward was born in Rivenhall in 1927 and moved to Badley Hall Farm, in Great Bromley, when he was two.

Son John Hayward said: “He spent almost all of the rest his life in the village and his many local friendships meant a great deal to him.

“He became a man who put down very deep roots in Great Bromley.”

Mr Hayward, a former farming columnist for the Standard’s sister paper the Essex County Standard, leaves seven grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.