WHEN Amanda Cottrell is elevated to office as the new High Sheriff of Kent on Sunday it will be rich reward for her decades of dedication to community services across the county.

She was selected for the oldest secular office in Britain by the top judges in the land in a 1,000-year-old ceremony.

Since then she has been planning to reach out across the county to thank all unsung volunteers for their efforts.

Dating back to before the days of the Norman conquest, the duties of the High Sheriff include attending High Court judges who preside over crown courts and giving them help and advice where necessary.

Originally the position held responsibilities for collecting money on behalf of the monarch and many other powers now vested in the Lord Lieutenant, judges, magistrates, coroners and the Inland Revenue. The High Sheriff was also the principal law enforcement officer.

Today the post is almost entirely ceremonial, with the only significant legal function relating to the enforcement of High Court writs – the High Sheriff no longer has the task of raising a posse to accompany and protect visiting judges.

Born in 1941, Mrs Cottrell is proud to be known as a farmer’s daughter, although her home was, in fact, a castle and estate in the Lake District where her family were staunch Liberal supporters.

Her godfather was party leader Joe Grimond, who persuaded her father to stand for Parliament, although he was beaten in the polls by Sir Willie Whitelaw.

Mrs Cottrell was educated at home by a governess until the age of 13 and then sent to Switzerland to learn what the family considered the key skills of speaking French and skiing well.

Her mother came from Virginia, America, and met her father when they were both studying at Oxford.

As a teenager Mrs Cottrell travelled to America to study art for some years. She returned to London in the Sixties to work for Collins publishers in Hatchards bookshop where she met and later married her late husband Michael.

He was a brewery and wine merchant best known as managing director of the Courage Brewery.

The couple came to Kent 38 years ago when they bought Laurenden Forstal in Challock, which was a virtual ruin. Living in a cottage in the grounds, the couple spent 20 years restoring the house to its former glory.

Mrs Cottrell, who has been a widow for nine years, still takes enormous pride in the three-acre garden she works herself with only part-time help and opens to the public for charity.

She also has 13 surrounding acres for her horses, two goats and free-range chickens, and, until recently, used to hand-milk her own house cow.

With four children and eight grandchildren, she is proud that the family have continued to be true rural supporters.

She said: "I am passionate that the local countryside should provide food for local people and back the efforts of local farmers, rural people in general and country sports.

"I still ride regularly and, in my youth, hunted. My husband was a good shot and I admire watching working dogs and love fly-fishing. Like all my children I am a country sports enthusiast."

Those that know her well are aware that this is just one side of the fun-loving woman who is equally at home in the slapstick village pantomime.

In her new role, Mrs Cottrell will love dressing up in 18th century court dress with tricorn hat, velvet jacket and buckled shoes. And will enjoy carrying a sword, which will, in fact, be her grandfather’s dress sword made in 1880, as a symbol of justice.

She said: "I look like a pirate with ostrich feathers but I will be wearing a skirt not breeches to keep the feminine touch."

Mrs Cottrell has been devoted to her local community and it is fitting that the ceremony will take place in the parish church. She has been a member of the parish council for 34 years, 25 of them as chairman, and is especially proud that Challock was voted Kent Village of the Year.

For 21 years she has been a magistrate sitting at least one day a week in courts across east Kent, although she will have to stand down during her time as High Sheriff.

She has been a governor at the private Ashford Girls’ School and has been on the board at the Towers school in Kennington.

She is president of Ashford district NSPCC, county president of the Girl Guides Association and a great supporter of the National Gardens Scheme.

She plans to devote much of her energy to helping the elderly and young people in trouble, including support for the Chatham-based Fairbridge charity, which provides challenges for disadvantaged youngsters, and Kent Housing Trust, which runs 22 care homes for the elderly.