Star quality of Shropshire school cook

She was a Shropshire school cook – but one with a sprinkling of Hollywood stardust.

Miss Joyce Duckett of Much Wenlock attracts attention as the stand-in for a movie star.

Her name was Joyce Leach and during the filming of “Gone To Earth” on location in the county in 1949 she was the stand-in for the enchanting star, Jennifer Jones.

“There was still a bit of showbiz glamour about her in 1969 when I first met her. She was a very snappy dresser when not at work,” recalls Pete Edwards, one of Joyce’s young charges at Jackfield School.

“Joyce was recruited because she had hair and build similar to that of the female lead.

“She could also ride a horse, though this attribute was not used. I believe Joyce did appear in some of the long shots, leaving the star to take a break. She is mentioned in the credits under her maiden name.

Hollywood actress Jennifer Jones, right, during the filming of Mary Webb book Gone To Earth in Much Wenlock in 1949.

“The part in the film was the high point in her life and she was always keen to tell the story.

“My late mother restored a kidney-shaped dressing table for her in about 1975. It was padded with a white brocade material and had a glass top.

"I well remember pulling out all the tacks to remove the old cloth. The cloth was kept as patterns to stitch the new work.

"We used to joke that this was the sort of thing a ‘star’ should own.”

Pete, who lives these days in Culmington, Stirchley, added: “Joyce Leach was assistant cook when I joined in September 1969. On the retirement of a Mrs Fiddler in 1972 she was promoted to head cook.”

A last photo of Jackfield School when it closed in July 1981. Mary Edwards is to the right of the head, Peter Lloyd. Joyce Leach is not on the picture – by this time school meals were being outsourced from Broseley.

At the time of the 1949 filming Joyce, who died about three years ago, was Miss Joyce Duckett and living in Much Wenlock, where some scenes were shot.

She continued to provide dinners to the Jackfield schoolchildren until the village school’s closure in the summer of 1981, although Pete says: “Due to the falling pupil rolls a decision was taken to ‘send out’ dinners from Broseley school, thus Mrs Leach as then head cook was relocated to Broseley about a year before the closure, much to her chagrin.”

Pete’s mother Mrs Mary Edwards taught the infants at Jackfield.

He said the school head, Peter Lloyd, was a cousin of Jeremy Lloyd, the comedy writer behind hit television shows such as Are You Being Served? and ‘Allo ‘Allo.