A DEDICATED amateur botanist and conservationist has died.


She was the first person to discover the importance of Waitby Greenriggs railway cutting, near Kirkby Stephen, for its rare flowers including orchids and grass of Parnassus.



Miss Wilson was an active recorder for The Flora of Cumbria, the definitive book on the county’s wildflowers, and she knew all the locations for the rarer flowers in Westmorland.

She was also active in helping to conserve them.

When Shell planned a pipeline through Cumbria in the 1990s she was the first to realise it would destroy the only location for chickweed wintergreen in Westmorland on Firbank Fell. She met the engineers on site, persuaded them to move the pipeline, and visited regularly to ensure the construction vehicles did not kill the flowers by driving over them.


Peter Bullard, Director of Cumbria Wildlife Trust said: "Tessa was a very special person who was an active volunteer for Cumbria Wildlife Trust over a 40 year period. She cared passionately for the wildflowers of Westmorland and helped them in many practical ways.”
