She returned to the United Kingdom in the mid-1960s, and was appointed director of the Arts Council-sponsored Bear Lane Gallery, Oxford in 1966. Crossley-Holland often disagreed with the gallery's trustees if pottery was considered art when she argued an exhibition of craftsmanship would be best suited to fill a gap in their schedule. With the intention of "if you can't join them, beat them", after she was given the response "What? Not casseroles?" by the trustees, she obtained the financial backing of 29 personal friends as shareholders and set-up the Oxford Gallery on High Street, Oxford in 1968. As one of the first specially commercial craft and art galleries for this purpose, the Oxford Gallery under Crossley-Holland's leadership hosted 187 exhibitions involving more than 2,000 artists at the rate of one every five weeks with works of fine art such as prints, glass, pottery, engraving, jewellery, wall-hanging and the occasional painting put on display. She was one of the first to put on exhibits of John Makepeace's furniture, Lucie Rie's and Hans Coper's pottery, Wendy Ramshaw's jewellery and Peter Collingwood's weaving. Throughout the 1970s and earliy 1980s, Crossley-Holland was in a partnership with the Bradford Print Biennale, and received enough capital from garden exhibitions designed by Harold Peto in the High Walls in Headington in 1984 and 1985. She retired from the Oxford Gallery in 1986 and moved to Walsham le Willows, Suffolk. A special indoor/outdoor exhibition in honour of Crossley-Holland ran at the Barbican Conservatory in early 1986. Personal life From 10 September 1939 to 1970, she was married to the composer Peter Crossley-Holland. They had two children, Kevin Crossley-Holland, who became a children's author and poet, and Sally. In 1983, she received the OBE for "services to the arts", becoming the first independent art gallery owner to earn the award. She died from Alzheimer's disease at Pinford End House nursing home, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk on 12 January 2005. Personality and legacy Marina Vaizey described Crossley-Holland as "small, bustling, and determined, rather like a fictionalised version of an inspiring but at times overwhelming sixth-form teacher" who had an "old-fashioned" appearance. She also noted her "preference for subdued colours from sludge green to rust red" and for sporting "the unexpected piece of avant garde jewellery." Upon her retirement, the director of the Crafts Council Victor Margie labelled her a "crusader and missionary", and spoke of her "dogged persistence of