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I'm now a fully
qualified pensioner, reaching 65 years young and live in Lytham St. Annes in Lancashire, England.
I retired from the aerospace industry in 1998. I'm married with 2
children. My hobbies are golf and genealogy.
My wife Pat and I have been married for 43 years. We have one daughter,
Andrea and one son, Neil. Both have flown the nest and are living with
their respective partners, also in Lytham St. Annes.
Andrea married Nathan Barrows in June
2004 and Neil married Niki
Irvine in October, also 2004.
I was born in Wallasey,
Cheshire in 1943. I can't remember but I believe I went to Gorsey Lane
Primary School. If anybody know how to check this out, I'd appreciate
it. I lived there until I was 5 years old when my parents
(Violet and Alexander) moved to live with my granddad (Silvester) in a
lovely country village called Edgworth, which is near Bolton in
Lancashire. I’ve been a naturalised Lancastrian ever since. My granddad
lived in Barons Cottage which is now a beautiful renovated farmhouse
owned by my first playmate's (James Ramwell) sister Marion. I visited
the house with my uncle Graham (over from Australia) in August 2004. It was wonderful to see my first Lancashire home again.
I started school at the Edgworth Methodist Junior School (now a block of apartments). The kids there took
the mickey out of my Scouse accent. I remember having to fight (and
beat) the “Cock of the infants” (Douglas Innes), just to prove that I
wasn’t any “different” to them. My mother told me that I lost the accent
and started to talk broad Lancashire within 2 weeks of arriving there.
At 8 years old, we moved on, to live in a Council owned,
prefabricated house made from wood and asbestos sheeting in Bromley
Cross a little nearer Bolton but I still travelled to “the Meths”. My
brother, Richard was born around this time.
I passed my “11 plus” (entrance examination) to both Bolton and Darwen
Grammar schools but I talked my mum and dad into letting me go to the
Technical College in Darwen.
I have now made a few
contacts from school, all due to the photograph of my first year class
published in the
Photo Gallery.
Kathleen Taylor and George
Bibby reminded me who some of them are but Gordon Holden has nearly
named them all. Anybody else out there who
could help me, please get in touch. I would love to here from you.
School Trivia
Point of interest here -
Darwen Tower, real name The Jubilee Tower was built between 1897/8 and
was opened 24th September 1898.
When I was 12, we moved back near Edgworth to live in the “Turton
Conservative Club” (which is now a Rest Home). My mum was the Stewardess of the club. My dad worked
at “Jellicoe’s”, the village garage. The club was a great place for me.
I could practice football in the “Ballroom”, snooker and darts in the games
room/bar, crown green bowl, shoot (Starlings with an air-rifle), fly
gliders off the roof. It was a youth’s paradise.
I think I was 13 when I
started to play football for Turton & Edgworth Juniors. Our "pitch" was
in the field behind my junior school. Our manager was a Mr. Dick Morris,
a lovely man, who used to live in Crown Point. I remember he took a few of us to watch
Accrington Stanley play one of there last games in the Football League.
My first team debut when I was about 15, was on a freezing cold day playing a team from Darwen.
We played on Sett End, which was the highest playing fields around
Darwen. I remember spending quite some time in the toilet block during
the game because I'd been hit in the "you know where" with the ball. I
was in absolute agony for about ten minutes.
I left school at 15. My dad was so annoyed that I’d talked my mum into
signing the papers without him knowing.
He made me walk round the village trying to get a job. I was taken on as a
“Casual Labourer” by Billy “Bricky” Knowles. I remember, my first task
was to stack a wagon-load of bricks outside a house that Billy was
building for Jack Holden, the owner of the famous Ice Cream Shop. I was helping Brian Hart,
another one of "Bricky's" helpers. At lunch-time I walked down to the garage to get a lift home with my dad. My hands were red-raw with
handling the rough bricks. We had a quick bite and then rushed back to the
garage, where my dad made me a pair of “mitts” out of an old car tyre
inner tube which made handling the bricks much more pleasant.
If you ever go to Edgworth,
you must have an Ice Cream. People travel from miles to sample the
finest in the land. I was there myself in October last year.
I unfortunately got “laid off” (sacked) when the winter arrived after
only 6 months. While I was waiting for my application for a job at
Metropolitan Vickers (a very large engineering company based in
Trafford Park, Manchester) to be accepted my dad got me a job at the
garage. I worked there for 6 months. During that period, I was “sacked”
again twice (my dad always got me re-instated). The first time was for
crashing a van into a wagon when I was reversing it out of the garage. I
can’t remember the other occasion at the moment. Working with my dad was
a great experience. He taught me a lot about “life”, as well as the
motor industry.
Again, after six months I was accepted into the “Training School” at
“Metro Vick’s”. I had to catch the 6 o’clock
train to Bolton and then catch a bus to get me to Trafford Park by 7-30 am.
Well, the trend didn’t change. 6 months later, my maternal grandparents
had died. My mum and dad had bought their house in Lytham so we moved
again. That was in 1959. My dad had organised himself a job working at the Atomic Energy Factory
at nearby Salwick. Now known as UKAEA.
I applied for a Draughtsman’s position at what was then called English Electric (the
company changed name many times and is now BAE Systems).
Whilst I waited for a reply, the next Monday, I took a job as a welder
(I’d been trained both by my dad and at Metro Vick’s) at A-Z
Engineering, making car exhaust pipes. As there wasn’t a welding set-up
available, I was put on a fly machine, cutting the slots in the pipes.
It was piecework and at a very good rate of pay and I really enjoyed it.
Friday morning, the boss put me on the welding benches. After about an
hour, I was asked “how it was going” and I said that I’d rather be back
on the fly press. Well, he shot off to his office and within five
minutes my pay-packet and my cards were in my hand and I was shown the
door. I was sacked again. That was four sackings in less than 18 months.
Luckily, I got the job at EE.
For the rest of that season
I travelled back to Edgworth to play for the first team. At the end of
season Presentation Dance, coincidentally at the Conservative Club, I
was presented with an award for loyalty to the club. It was the first
trophy I ever received and it is still standing proudly in my house.
Even at EE, where I was
excepted into the Flight Test Instrumentation Department, there was
another turn of fate. There wasn't a drawing board vacant so I was put
in the "workshop" which was under the leadership of Charlie Firth. I
can't remember the details but when I was asked to move to the Drawing
Office, I liked it so much that I was allowed to stay there and train as
an Instrument Maker.
Tony Barker (19 yrs old)
showed me the ropes and we became very good friends. In fact at the
T&EAFC presentation I mentioned earlier, I took Tony on a blind date. My
mum and dad took us from Lytham to Edgworth and we picked up my
girlfriend Pat and her friend Carol Blinkhorn at the White Horse bus
stop. I introduced Tony and Carol squashed in the back of the car. They
obviously hit it off because they married and are still friends living
just round the corner.
In 1960 Lytham Corinthians
Football Club manager Charlie Turner and the Chairman knocked on my door
and talked me into signing for them. I only played for two seasons but
the experience was great. I was lucky to be chosen to represent the
Blackpool Football League during my first season. Unfortunately we lost
7-1 to an Eccles League side.
1962, Tony talked me into
playing for the St. Annes YMCA. I can't remember playing any games
before I was selected to play in the Tower Cup Final at Bloomfield Road
(Blackpool FC's ground) which we won.
The other members of the
Workshop were Stan Horrocks, an Electrician, Jack Hoyle, a Fitter and
Ernie Cartmell, an Engraver. They had all seen the world and taught me a
lot during my very happy years there. Stan was a betting man and it
wasn't long before he showed me how to bet on the Tote. I was a much
shorter time before I realised it was a mugs game. Jack had a dry sense
of humour but generally he was a quiet meticulous worker who liked to
keep himself to himself. Ernie was a pipe smoker and used to clean it
out and "dry and mix" his tobaccos every Friday afternoon without fail.
One day I decided to play a trick on him. I'd previously dried out some
used tealeaves and when he wasn't looking I loaded his pipe with it.
Well, it was one of the worst backfiring tricks I'd ever seen. It was
very funny to see him draw on his pipe and then start coughing. Everyone
who was in on it laughed. Unfortunately Ernie also was an Asthmatic and
when the coughing turned into total breathlessness, we all panicked into
trying to help him. It was weeks before he talked to us again.
Geoff Foxcroft joined us in
the early 80's.
Tony, Geoff and I
played for the St. Annes YMCA football teams for many years.
I decided I had to change
my job, so still within the same department, I moved to the
Calibration Laboratory. Cyril Jepson was in charge. I gained more experience
and also the interest to work on the actual aircraft. So after a couple
more years, I moved again to the Flight Trials section.
I worked on Jaguars and
Tornados. Pete Walker, Geoff Bromley and Bill Harrison were my team
leaders over the years.
Around 1986, I moved again
to the Planning Office. Bert Campbell and Tony Creasey showed me the
ropes. Estimating and Timekeeping were my main tasks and I mixed a lot
with other departments.
Eventually moving to the
Avionic Joint Team, which was developing the software for the
Eurofighter Avionics System. The job involved travelling to Munich as
well as the other partner companies in Spain, Italy and Germany.
I was offered a position,
which was too good to turn down, within the Programmes and Planning
Department at Eurofighter GmbH, the management agency for the European
fighter aircraft, “Typhoon”.
So I left British Aerospace
and Pat and I
moved to Munich, Germany.
We arrived on the 8th of
January 1991 and the 12th January we went for our first Skiing lesson. It
wasn't a happy day, especially for Pat, who hated every minute. I was
one of the hardest days I have ever had. That's saying something
considering that the first football training session every year was
always very tough.
I bought my first computer
at the same time as I took an interest in my family tree. Little did I
know that it would be my second main interest since I retired.
I'm now a member of the Lancashire Family History and Heraldry Society
and also a member of the Guild of One-Name Studies.
My first manager, Dave
Welton, introduced me to golf. I borrowed some clubs and the bug took
hold. Just before I retired I bought a second hand set and started to go
to the driving range and had lessons with Martin Watson back in Lytham
when I had chance.
We
spent 7˝ years there before I retired at 55 from Eurofighter in May
1998. Flew back Sunday, played my first game Monday 1st June with Derek
Hirst, Eric Boardman and Carol Nichols. By Thursday, I had played and
put 3 cards in to get a handicap. Derek, who was on the council made
sure that I had my handicap (14) so I could play in my first competition
Saturday.
I've now been a member of Lytham Green Drive Golf Club
for 8 years. This year I have a new challenge as I've taken on the
position of Junior Organiser and have also been co-opted onto the
council.
12th June 2003: The day I achieved my original ambition which was
to get my handicap down to single figures.
12th July 2003: Won my first "Major". - The Presidents Prize.
7th August 2003: Handicap down to 7.
26th June 2004: Andrea
married Nathan Barrows.
11th Aug 2004: Met my "cousin 1st removed" Glynn and his wife Pam.
23rd Oct 2004: Neil married
Niki Irvine.
Jul 2005: Handicap 10 -
going the wrong way !
Jul 2006: Back to 9 again
May 2007: Handicap 8 -
hurray !
July 2007: Knee seized up -
Boo !
May 2008: Handicap 8 -
Hurray! - Waiting for a new knee - Boo
So now it's the beginning of the rest of my life.
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