THE funeral of Quantock Hills villager Beryl Purdy will take place later this month in the parish church where she served as churchwarden for 20 years.

Mrs Purdy, known as Bez, died at her home in Broomfield in the afternoon of March 27 after a suspected burglary.

A man aged in his 30s was later arrested on suspicion of her murder and taken a secure mental health unit after being sectioned under the Mental Health Act and deemed unfit to be interviewed by police or kept in their custody.

Mrs Purdy, aged 86, will be buried in the village churchyard in St Mary and All Saints Church, where her daughter Alison Purdy was laid to rest 11 years ago.

Alison was a police constable with Avon and Somerset Constabulary, the same force which is now investigating her mother’s alleged murder, and died in a riding accident in 2012, aged 46.

Mrs Purdy’s funeral will be held on Friday, May 19, nearly eight weeks after her death, in the parish church opposite the home she shared with her disabled husband Peter.

The 14th century Broomfield church lies between the village green and the village hall where Mrs Purdy was bookings secretary for 10 years.

The service is expected to be led by associate vicar the Rev Jim Cox, who has cared for parishioners since the departure on Easter Sunday of the rector, the Rev Dr Mary Styles, who has moved to a benefice in Suffolk.

Dr Styles had been a friend of Mrs Purdy and described her as ‘a faithful parishioner’.

The Broomfield churchyard is known also for being the resting place of Andrew Crosse, the 19th century electrician who was born and died in nearby Fyne Court, now owned by the National Trust, and whose experiments were said to have inspired Mary Shelley's novel Frankenstein.

Somerset coroner Samantha Marsh opened an inquest last month into Mrs Purdy’s death, taking evidence of identification and cause of death before adjourning the proceedings until February of next year.

Avon and Somerset Police is currently being investigated by The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) in connection with the alleged murder of Mrs Purdy.

The IOPC is looking at how officers responded when they received a report earlier on the day Mrs Purdy was killed that the man they later arrested had gone missing from a non-secure mental health establishment.

He was arrested in woodland near Broomfield following a police hunt with dogs and a helicopter about three hours after Mrs Purdy’s death.