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Suzy Oakes
Champion of Mill Road
When Suzy and her husband Steve O’Rahilly moved to Mill Road, straight away Suzy became involved with the community of residents and traders.
In Steve’s words ‘She had the idea that Mill Road, the neighbourhood we live in, was so fascinating and diverse and had so many interesting independent shops and so many inquisitive, talented and open-minded residents that this should be celebrated in some way. Suzy attracted the support of a small number of like-minded people and thus in 2007 The Mill Road Winter Fair was born.’
Also with like minded friends, she set up the original mill-road.com website. She became a founder member of Mill Road Bridges and decided, during her final illness, that it was the organisation best suited to continue the website’s work of bringing information about the road to both sides of the Mill Road bridge and to the wider city and beyond.
In her will, Suzy left money to Mill Road in the shape of the Suzy Oakes Trust. The Trust has supported, amongst other Mill Road organisations: Mill Road Cemetery (for restoration of graves and for a support grant to enable a larger grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund.) mill-road.com (for an earlier version of this website), Mill Road History Society (for a support grant to enable a larger grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund) Mill Road TV, Mill Road Festive Lights (currently dormant, awaiting re-establishment under the auspices of the Mill Road Traders) and Mill Road Winter Fair.
The trust has also been very helpful to the local charity Lifecraft in various ways. A room is named after Suzy in the charity’s premises at The Bath House in Gwydir Street.
Here you can read a short booklet about Suzy create for the Mill Road History Society’s planned presence at the 2024 Winter Fair .
Read her obituary on the Guardian website.
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