Miriam was a resident of Chipperfield from around the outbreak of war in 1939, apart from a few years in Kings Langley from 1965. She died at her home, The Laurels, The Common, on 5 May with her daughters at her bedside, after several weeks of declining health and strength following a period in hospital with a chest infection and pneumonia.
The Reverend Jim Stevens conducted her Service of Thanksgiving at the Chilterns Crematorium, Amersham, on 17 May which was attended by many members of her family, and friends and neighbours from Chipperfield. Her daughters would like to thank Jim Stevens for his kindness, and sensitive handling of the service. The words given below are taken from the writing of Miriam’s daughters which Jim read at the service.
Miriam was born in 1912 in Southgate, the eldest of three daughters.  After leaving school she worked as assistant to a dentist until she married Norman Bicknell in 1933. As Norman was away in the Army at the start of the war, Miriam moved to Chipperfield with her two daughters, Veronica and Hilary, to join her parents who had taken The Firs to escape from wartime London.  A third daughter, Stephanie, was born during the war. As The Firs then had stables, Miriam decided to try goat-keeping, and supplied milk to many houses in the village during and after the war, this often being delivered by her daughters. The girls were often to be seen leading the goats along the front of The Common to graze,  She ended up with 10 goats, the survivors being donated to Whipsnade Zoo in 1950. Older members of the village might also remember the WI Drama Group, led by Elizabeth Weedon, in which Miriam played a memorable Bolingbroke in an all-female production of Richard II.
Around 1960 Miriam and Norman, with daughter Stephanie, moved next door, to Sweet Briars, where they lived until 1965, when she moved to Kings Langley with her, by then, invalid husband, who died there in 1968. She  passed Civil Service exams and worked for 10 years in the Air Staff Registry at Bentley Priory.
In 1975 she married Bill Judge, moved back to Chipperfield and enjoyed 26 happy years at The Laurels until Bill’s death in 2001. She was lucky enough to have achieved the unusual feat of living in three houses in a row during her lifetime, opposite The Common which afforded her so much interest in her later years where she was a familiar sight, sitting in her window seat and watching the world, and the horses, go by.
Miriam’s last few years were very difficult for her, but she bore them bravely and was always cheerful and good company. She enjoyed visits from her family right up to the end, and was a loving and caring mother, grandmother and great-grandmother who will be greatly missed.