Death announced of town’s award-winning town crier

A Herefordshire town has lost its town crier of 17 years, it has been announced.

A statement on Bromyard and Winslow Town Council’s website says: “It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of Councillor Peder Nielsen on Monday December 2.”

Having taken on the town crier role in May 2007, he represented Bromyard at many festivals and civic events down the years, earing him recognition not just nationally but internationally.

He accumulated awards in each of his years of service, interrupted only by the 2020-21 pandemic, and culminating in being named national champion by the Ancient and Honourable Guild of Town Criers in 2019.

“Councillors and staff will greatly miss Peder’s cheerful nature, wealth of knowledge, and rousing, spirited voice,” the town council said.

As well as his town crier role, Coun Nielsen was a “devoted” local councillor, most recently chairing the town’s traffic management committee, since May, it added.

Peder Nielsen was born in Cheshire of Anglo-Danish parents, and having moved around England, he and wife Jan, who survives him, settled in Bromyard when she took up a veterinary job locally.

Once describing himself as “a rather shy and retiring”, he said that “thanks to both my wife and the town, I have found a new confidence in myself, for which I’m very grateful”.