I know that I was born at home near to the seafront in West Cowes at a place called marine tap which was in recent years a tea room and a gallery.As I begin to write this I am 55 years old and I'm not sure how acurate my memory is but I will try and get things written down as acurately as I remember them.
My earliest memories are probably when I was about 5 or 6 years old and we were living in Elm Grove in West Cowes. I can remember short snippets like Waiting and listening on Christmas eve for the sound of bells from Santa's sleigh and the reindeer. I can remember dad working hard doing some part time gardening to pay for the rental of a very early television set.I also remember watching Moby Dick on television and being frightened and also playing truant from school with a girl. I remember mum falling out with the next door neighbour.
As I write this I seem to recall living earlier, on the old pre-fab housing estate at East cowes alongside Victoria rd.I have some very vague memories from there and I am almost certain that it would have been before we lived at Elm Grove.
I remember that we were next living at Dodnor caravan park at the end of Dodnor lane near Newport.The caravan that we lived in was very small and very old. I remember the name of it was Restawhile. I don't think we lived there long before my parents managed to rent an old house along the banks of the river medina near Newport called Hurstake. I must have been around 7 or 8 years old perhaps slightly younger at that time. I spent my whole childhood growing up in that house and I have some very fond and dear memories of those times. Hurstake was once a public house called The Ship and Launch. I remember so many things about the house like the fact that there was no electricity or running water. We used parrafin lamps and candles to light the rooms at night and cooked on a parrafin range cooker and a separate parrafin stove. There was a coal fire in the front room and a cast iron kitchen range that burnt coal in the old bar which we used as a living room. We used parrafin stoves upstairs to heat the bedrooms and I remember mum struggling down Dodnor lane and Cow lane carrying maybe two 1 gallon cans of parrafin and a load of shopping as well. The water was drawn from a well in the garden which was fed by an underground stream from Camp Hill. We had the luxury of having a water tank in the house with a pipe to a single porcelain sink. There was a pump on the outside wall to pump water from the well into the tank. The pump had to be primed by pouring water into the pipe first and then pumping like mad untill we could feel the water drawing up from the well. I remember dad using a piece of stick a cork and a piece of string to make a simple guage to tell us when the tank was full.The house was set in about half an acre of land so there was plenty of ground for us to grow our own vegetables and fruit. The railway track run just along the back of the house and we used to wave at the trains as they went by on their way from Newport to Cowes and on the return journey. There was a cottage built onto the end of the house which was owned by Newport rowing club and used to store old wood and rubbish. At the front of the house we looked out directly onto the river Medina and Newport rowing club.I remained there for the whole of my school life and it was a good and a happy place to grow up even though we never had the amenities that other people had. We had our own boat and I can remember going out in the boat with dad and we would row from Hurstake as far down the river towards Cowes as Kingston power station stopping off in the various creeks and inlets and even calling ocasionally at the Folly Inn. As I got older I had my own boat that I salvaged from the river with my best friend Eric Mew who lived accross the fields at Lower Cross Farm in Dodnor lane. We used to do a lot of fishing in the river and it was a great place to be for someone who loved fishing. At low tide you could walk accross the river and you could dig plenty of ragworm for bait. There was places at low tide down toward Dodnor caravan park and the Christian sailing center where you could dig king ragworm for use around the Island when we used to go pier fishing, mostly at Totland bay pier at night time.Another thing that you could do at low tide was to fish for flounders and plaice in the deep gulleys of water left by the barges as they scraped their keels along the mud in low water. Dad once made me a wonderful fishing net or shrimp net as it would have been called and by pushing this from one end of a deep gulley to the other the net would pick up several fish and some very edible. You could start fishing about 30 minutes after the tide started coming in and we used to fish from the mud, moving gradually shorewards as the tide rose. We used to catch flounders, plaice, bass, grey mullet and the occasional anoying eel which would promptly tangle all our line. At high tide or a short while before then we could go out in the boat, drop anchor making sure we were out of the center shipping lane and enjoy our fishing. I can remember 2 or 3 of us fishing in the boat and coming ashore with the whole bottom of the boat full with fish. Mum used to work at Albany Barracks before it was turned into the high security Albany prison and she used to sell fish to anyone who wanted them. She later worked at St Marys Hospital and used to sell fish to her friends there as well as produce from the garden. I can remember the Firework displays that we allways had, that would start arround 6pm and go on till arround 10pm. We would start off by lighting the smaller fireworks and gradually working up to the larger and more expensive ones at the end. Firework night was a real occasion with hot dogs and hot drinks with the family and some close friends. The fireworks for the display would sometimes cost as much as £20 for the whole display but that would buy well over a hundred fireworks back in the 60s. I can remember back in 1963 or 1964 when the snow blizzards hit the south of England. It was a long cold winter and the snow lasted about 3 months. We were virtually cut off from civilisation and only with great difficulty could we fight our way through the snow drifts up through Cow lane and into Dodnor lane at the back of St Marys hospital. Mum worked at the hospital during that time and suffered snow sickness on her way to work and got lost in a snowdrift in farmer Stark's field. She shouted for help and was rescued by a worker at the boiler house at the hospital, a story which she told everyone untill she died. That winter the temperature was so low that the water in the river Medina froze over. I remember us trying to take the boat out and we had to break the ice in front of us. There are all sorts of memories that come to mind and I can only hope to get a few of them down here. it really was a truly great place for a boy to grow up! I remember the hot summers and helping either of my two friends who lived at Upper and Lower St Cross farms, Ross Stark and Eric Mew when they were helping their dads during hay making season. We would also make tents from old sheets and go along the riverbank and camp. I had to trail some distance up to Dodnor lane and the main road to catch a bus to go to school. My first schools were Parkhurst infants then the junior school at Hunnyhill. Later after failing my 11 plus exam I went to Priory boys school at Gunville.
One of the last things I remember from my time down by the river was my growing interest in electricity,of which we had none!!! I was an avid listener to Radio Caroline and Radio London and any of the 60s offshore radio stations that I could receive on a transistor radio. and after the labour government and prime minister Harold Wilson passed the Marine broadcasting offences bill which became law on August the 15th 1967. I vowed to somehow continue the fight for free radio. I stayed off work on 14th of August 1967 to hear the closedown of Radio London on 266mts in the medium wave and I recall the first illegal transmission from Radio Caroline at 12 midnight as Johnny Walker announced that Caroline would continue on 259 mts on the medium waveband!!
My mind was made up and although I did not have a clue I vowed to run my own land based station in the fight for free radio. It was my friend Eric Mew who bought a ex army 22 set tranciever from a local second hand shop in Newport that began the starting point for radio Solent City. I had at that time bought a ex army rotary transformer that would produce about 300 volts DC from a 12 volt car battery. I had also picked up a motor battery charger. Well I had the gear! as crude as it was but I did not have a clue how to get the transmitter side of the old 22 set up and running. After much tinkering I finally loaded a carrier up on the 48 metre short waveband which at that time was alive with land based pirate stations every sunday morning. I connected a record player and the old ex army carbon mike and realised that I was actually on the air and could pick up the signal at a distance on my dad's transistor radio that had short wave capability. The first confirmation of this broadcast came from my god father who lived at wooton and was also an amateur radio enthusiast.I spent a lot of time getting information on how to broadcast on medium wave also and my first transmission was by converting the coils in the old 22 set to operate and tune at arround 227 metres mw. The set was itself unstable at this frequency but I did broadcast a signal for 4 to 5 miles. I then managed to gain the help of other radio enthusiasts on how to build a medium wave transmitter. Finally I had managed to build a very low powered mw valve transmitter but it did work and I started to broadcast on a sunday morning quite regular. I then started building better transmitters and with the aid of a friend Simon Ball,we errected a very long wire antenna from the chimmeny pot of the house to a large oak tree in the nearby field. We further connected the end of the aerial to the barbed wire fence below. The increase in signal was dramatic and the station could now be heard arround the Island but strongest and clearest up to 15 miles away. We had lived at Hurstake for about 15 years and I had grown up there with my brother David. The old house was in bad repair but Dad battled on keeping it going with a few repairs and a lick of paint. In 1970 I joined the RAF and went for training at RAF Swinderby in Lincolnshire although it was not to be and I decided to buy myself out after only three weeks! On return home to the river I picked up the radio again and also became interested in running a local disco with a friend who came from the RAF. The disco never happened through lack of funds and my friend went on his way. Then came the day when at last the old house was condemned and we were re-housed in a council house along from my early school Parkhurst Juniours at Hunnyhill. I haven't said much about my school life but it started there and I enjoyed the time I was there and made many friends. I failed my eleven plus exams and went to Priory boys school at Gunville and left there when I was 15 to work at Henry Bannister & Co Rope makers in West Cowes where my dad had worked for many years. I worked there until the firm closed and found a job at Gordon Lowe Plasics at Place rd, West Cowes. After a year or so I left there to work for myself as a landscape gardener as I had passed my driving test on the first attempt when I was 17. This might seem to be switching about a bit but the old memory is not what it used to be and I passed 60 last year!! However! back to the council house that I moved to with my parents in Albany Road, Newport. Along that road lived a girl who was to become my first love and very dramatically my wife! Jane and I became friends quickly and started dating although she was 16 at the time. Problems arose within her family and us that caused us to plan to elope to Scotland to get married! Everything was planned and the day we left no one suspected. We caught the car ferry at Yarmouth with my old Ford Anglia and headed North! Late that night we crossed the border just about the same time as our families realised we had gone and we continued to drive on into Scotland to a small town in the Highlands called Fort William where the next day we rented a small caravan at Banavie right on the Caledonian canal looking up at Ben Nevis! We new we were safe but still dreaded her family chasing after us before we were married. It took 3 weeks wait after registering our intent to marry and finally we were married in the little registry office at Fort William that is sadly no more! I managed to get a job working in the Forestry Comission at Torlundy and we lived happily for a while but times were hard and money short.We lived there for about 6 months then decided to head back to the Isle of Wight. On arrival we had to try and get along with both sets of parents and lived with my mother and father for a while then for a short period with Jane's parents. Living with family did not work out very well so we rented a flat in Shanklin and that did not last very long either. I had got a job as a Calor gas delivery driver for W. Hurst and son at Newport and through my work rented a caravan for us at Yafford farm and later we moved into a chalet where there was more room. During this time Jane gave birth to our first daughter who we called Caroline. I switched from driving to running my own landscape garden service and did work arround the Island. We had our names on the council house list and eventually got a house in Newport at 12 Highfield rd. By this time Jane was pregnant with our second child , Tracy.
Moving back to Newport I drove for a while delivering calor gas again then worked at a waste paper plant on the quayside at Newport. When Tracy was born it soon became obvious that she had a problem and initially it was an allergy to all gluten products. She started spending time in Great Ormond street childrens hospital in London and we would travel up on the train to visit her. Sadly things started to go wrong in our marriage and for this, all these years later I must take a huge part of the blame. Whilst I had restarted my radio station again and Radio Solent City International became well known both on medium wave and on the short waveband at 6280khz 48mts. I thought I had really achieved one of my goals in life but I was actually very close to losing the person who meant so much to me and who I loved dearly. Jane and I had one more child, a son who we named Michael. He also had food allergy problems and ended up in foster care. We can all talk about things with hindsight but I know now that I did not show her the attention and love which she deserved and eventually she left me and moved to the mainland at Cosham nr Portsmouth with a neighbour who lived 3 doors away! I have never in all this time fell out of love with Jane and in the last 35 years or so I have defended her whenever anything has been said by my two daughters as they grew up. What can I say! I was a fool and paid the price!
The story still has a long way to go and I am now in the twilight years of my life. I hope to finish this God willing!
It is now November 22nd 2011 and here I am again trying to get all this down! I have just celebrated my 61st birthday!
After Jane had left me I lived alone in the house in Highfield road. I had applied for custody of Caroline and Tracy who were living with their mother in Havant, meanwhile Michael was in hospital at Ryde and then in a foster home. I met and married a girl who I met through a lonely hearts advertisement in the County Press. In a very short space of time I was contacted by the social services and informed that my first wife had applied to have the children put into care, therefore would I be willing to take them back to live with me. I of course accepted and they came to live with us in Newport. My second marriage turned out to be on the rebound and a complete disaster and within 5 to 6 months it was at breaking point. My second wife, also called Jane, contacted some friends of mine in county Durham and asked if I could stay with them whilst looking for a job and somewhere to live and promising to follow me up with Caroline and Tracy. Well I packed up my old mark 2 Ford Cortina and headed North to Evenwood in County Durham. I soon found a job and the prospects for housing were quite good! At this time my second wife decided not to follow me or to bring the children. She filed for divorce naming the two children, Caroline and Tracy as her own by birth. I contacted the Isle of Wight Social services and they imediately removed the children under a place of safety order. Caroline eventually went back to live with my first wife and Tracy was put into foster care on the Isle of Wight. I lived with my friends in Evenwood and continued to work near Bishop Auckland for BDA Engineering. I was introduced to a single mother who had two children and her husband had left her. We started dating and clicked very quickly and after a few months I moved in to live with her and look after her and the children, Anthony and Heather.My first wife contacted me about Michael and said that the social services suggested he was adopted, to which we both had to agree. She signed the papers and with a heavy heart and because of the complications I signed also. I had virtually no contact with either caroline or Tracy for a few years, again because of distance but mostly complications with them being in care. Again with hindsight I could have done more. My wife to be who I was living with always made it clear that they would be welcome to live with us if we could sort it. It just never came to pass and sometimes I wonder how things might have turned out. My wife to be was called Geraldine and we are still together to this day and celebrate our Ruby wedding next year.
Geraldine and I lived for some time at Wellgarth in Evenwood. I changed my workplace from BDA Engineering to Evenwood engineering because it was closer to home. At this time I put my radio station back on the air and broadcasts from Radio Solent City north east began. However after a few months the station was the subject of a raid by the Home office and police. When the case was heard at Bishop Auckland magistrates court I maintained in evidence that the station had never caused interference to any broadcast station in the 9 years it had been broadcasting, both in the Isle of Wight and here in the north east and no complaints had ever been received and that all programmes were of a purely musical entertainment content and non-political. In summing up the magistrate scratched his head and looked at myself and the other djs who had been summoned and said to us. "Well I am sorry to see you here because of your interest in your hobby and in radio but aparently it is against the law! I was fined £60 for 9 years broadcasting and this was later paid by a kind donation.
Radio Solent City was at last no more! although after the equipment was confiscated, enough was left to build another transmitter. It was used briefly about 2 weeks after the raid and again very briefly many years later.
Now my mind turned to other interests and I started travelling down to Bradford and buying second hand colour televisions. I would bring these back and repair them and sell them at a good profit. I then started renting out the TVs and decided to pack in my job at Evenwood Engineering and start my own business. Rob's TV it was called and although it never made us rich it provided a good income for some time. We later moved to 97 Proudfoot Drive Bishop Auckland where I continued to run my business and once I had divorced my second wife, Geraldine and I were free to marry. We were married at Cockton Hill registry office and my mother and father were able to be present for the wedding and afterwards we took them back to the Isle of Wight which served as a honeymoon as well.
I continued running my television business and briefly had business premises at Middridge drift industrial estate near Shildon and prior to that at one end of the main street in Bishop Auckland behind what is now a supermarket but used to be a car repair yard. I had a partner for a while but business was not good enough to sustain two wages or hardly one at the end. We had a caravan that we towed up to Ellington in Northumberland and used to spend weekends up there and it was from there that we heard of a shop for sale in Ashington. We eventually raised the finance to move into the shop and that meant that we were on the move permanently to Ashington. With the help of my two brother in laws we converted the upstairs of the shop into a nice flat to live in. The shop was at 26/28 Beatrice street Ashington. Luck was never really on our side with the shop as we took over on the exact week that the miners went on strike! This was the big strike that lasted arround a year and the unions were lead by Arthur Scargill and Margaret Thatcher was prime minister. We sold what the previous owner was selling and that was hardware plus I also did a few television repairs. We had 4 children at that time, two from Geraldine's first marriage, Tony and Heather and two from our own marriage, Simon and Sarah. We survived the strike but when the miners went back to work many were in debt and had little money to spend. After six months things were so bad that we could not afford to buy stock and food to eat so we consulted a solicitor who advised us to voluntarily declare ourselves Bankrupt.
After the Bankruptcy the council housed us in a lovely 4 bedroom house at North Seaton which we loved. We were very happy there and of course all the money worries had been lifted. The children went to local schools and I did a few jobs for a friend who had a shop in Amble and later was manager for a television repair business in Amble owned by George Hallimond my brother in law.
Whilst we were living at North Seaton I made friends with a west indian called Arthur who worked on repairing old Volkswagon Transporters and eventually I bought an old one and he got it roadworthy for me. Mum and dad came up to visit and they came up on Dad's retirement. I took them for a few days to Fort William in the Highlands of Scotland.
Houses were very hard to rent along that time but we wanted to move back further south and eventually rented a terraced house off Geraldine's uncle Keith who was a local preacher. The house was at Ramshaw at 3 Station Terrace. We were happy there and Geraldine was close to her mother also. During our time there Our youngest daughter Laura was born in 1991 the same year as my dad died. When dad died my brother drove up for me and we went back down to the Isle of Wight for the funeral.
Laura started growing up and I tried several jobs to make a living including working for a charity called Forest and Gardens which helped young people with certain disabilities. It was mostly forestry work which I had done many years before in Scotland. My eldest daughter Caroline came up to visit a couple of times and I also made contact with my other daughter Tracy who visited, both these being from my first marriage with Jane. I moved from the forestry work to being self employed repairing and selling televisions and before leaving station terrace I got a job as manager of View-Tel in Evenwood owned by Morris Colinson and that involved buying secondhand televisions an selling to the public. It was during our stay at Station Terrace that I started going to the Pentecostal Church at Evenwood and was also saved and baptised in water at that time.
We did a lot of camping in those days and also had two caravans over the time we were at Ramshaw. We used to do a lot of camping in the lakes which we all loved. I had many cars over that period including 2 Volkswagen caravettes and a couple of cars. We did a lot of work on the house especially as we expected to be buy the house. Geraldine's uncle was diagnosed with cancer and decided to sell the house anyway because he had received a cash offer from someone who was buying up the houses in our row. He did give us the opportunity to buy it but we could not get a mortgage on it because of subsidence problems locally.
Well, we decided to move yet again and managed to get a mortgage on a house at Chilton in West Chilton Terrace. It was a nice 3 bedroom house with plenty of room and we were close to all the shops. We settled in well and became members of Windlestone Methodist Church. We were soon involved in running the Sunday School and other activities. At this time I was made Sunday School superintendent and I enlisted the help of two very good friends I had met from Spennymoor, Gilbert and Joan Anderson. Joan used to play the piano and organ and Gilbert used to teach the children with me and the help of my wife and daughter Sarah. We were heavily involved with church life at Windlestone and we were kept pretty busy with all the meetings and functions and we made a lot of very good friends. Windlestone chapel has a very special place in my heart because it was there that I first received the power of God's Holy Spirit. It was shortly after we moved to Chilton and we were at evening worship one sunday. The preacher that night was Ann Pratt and from the moment she came out to the pulpit I felt that every word from her mouth was directed at me and at first this unsettled me but as she continued to speak it became more obvious to me that something really strange was happening. At first I thought I was just getting emotional and then I realised that God was speaking directly into my heart and pouring out his Holy Spirit upon me. It was the strangest yet wonderful feeling and I began to shake tears started to fall as I prayed to the Lord for more! After the service one of the older members came up to me and said, he was here tonight, and I simply replied. Yes I know!
Okay so I was preaching at the Thursday fellowship which I used to run and also at the women's fellowship meetings plus other meetings around the circuit. The problem was I could not preach at a sunday service from the pulpit because I was not qualified as a local preacher. It was not long before I felt that God was calling me to preach and that meant taking the local preachers Faith and worship course. I said no to God on those first occasions that he called because I was doing okay in my mind and besides, I was never very good at School having left at 15 and felt there was no way I could pass the course and the 4 examinations. However as I have since discovered God doesn't give up and I began to feel and hear him saying to me, Take the course my son, I have my hand on your shoulder and I will be right beside you all of the way. Wow! This was too much and I eventually announced one Thursday fellowship evening in early 1998 that I was going to start the course to become a Local preacher. The course consisted of taking part in services accompanied by a qualified local preacher. I was so pleased when my old friend Fred Haswell offered to take up that job whilst I was on note. I Received a note to preach on 22/04/1998. Fred was great and mostly just introduced me to the congregations then let me do the whole service which ruffled a few feathers but Fred insisted that as I was already preaching and leading worship that he did not intend to start as a beginner. In our first quarter Fred and I took 15 services. Not to go into things too deeply, I passed my parts A and B of Faith and Worship on 03/12/1999 and continued taking services on my own whilst still on trial. I successfully completed parts C and D on 04/08/2000. I was then accepted as a local preacher onto the Methodist circuit and was presented with a bible at my acceptance service.
While we lived in Chilton we continued to work with the church and become part of the community but after a couple of years we ran into financial trouble and had to give up our house. We first were given a council house, or rather a terraced house owned by the council then later on we moved into a house owned by our daughter Heather and her husband. The house was in Victoria road and we were only there a few months when we were forced to leave due to anti-social behaviour from local gangs. We initially stayed with our son at Manor Grove in Cockfield then found a house to rent at 12 Copley Bent, Butterknowle. I continued to preach in the same circuit which was the Spennymoor and Ferryhill circuit and I also preached regular in the Weardale circuit. During our time at Copley Bent my health failed and I was unable to work. I was diagnosed with Osteo Arthritis and Spinal Stenosis plus I had High blood pressure and high cholesterol. The doctors eventually controlled my cholesterol and blood pressure with tablets which I now take for life. I had a MRI scan for my back and this showed the extent of the arthritis and I had a brain scan because I suffered with Tinnitus. All in all I was in a sorry state and felt very run down. I applied for Disability living allowance 3 times and was turned down. The 4th time I saw a solicitor who filled in the application form and sent me for a complete medical examination. After this I received the middle rate award for care and the high rate of mobility allowance which was quite a help. My wife became my carer also.
Well! Back to my children from my first marriage to Jane. During our time at 12 Copley Bent Tracy and her uncle Allan came up to visit on several occasions and usually things were okay for a few hours then the talk would get back to the same old questions about myself and Jane deserting her when she was a child and the problems that she encountered in various foster homes. I believe I mentioned in this story that Geraldine had offered for me to have both of the girls live with us in County Durham but it just did not happen for a variety of reasons, more especially because they preferred the lifestyle of the South of England to the North East. I tried and more than tried for about 35 years or so to get a situation where everyone could at least be civil to each other but I found that what I said to one was repeated to the others and my name always seemed to get blackened. On several occasions I can recall telling both of the girls that I was going to speak with their mother and hopefully sort things out but strangely they seemed to almost panic when I suggested the idea. This led me to believe that a certain amount of the truth had been twisted to suit each occasion. During the 5 years that we lived at Copley Bent we visited Caroline and Tracy but only Tracy came up to see me. It was also during this time that I set out to find my son Michael who had been adopted when he was a baby. After much investigation we finally made contact and we drove down to Southampton to pick Michael up and bring him for a visit to the North East. Unlike the girls Michael had a good childhood with a lovely couple who we have since met. Also unlike the girls Michael loved the North East and the countryside having driven lorries up this way 0n several occasions. He later moved up to the North East with his girlfriend and lived for a while in Bishop Auckland. His stay was not long as his girlfriends mother persuaded them to move down to London near her. I actually drove a removal van with their furniture down there. I can understand the girls feeling different to Michael but it was nice to talk frankly with my son after all those years apart and not once has he ever blamed me or his mother for him being adopted. I loved my girls dearly and shed more than a tear or two over the fact that we could not put the past behind us and look to the future. During the time at Copley Bent my mother died and myself and Geraldine went down to the Isle of Wight to help my brother clear out her flat and for the funeral. It was my greatest pleasure and yet one of the hardest things I have done to take mum's funeral service at the crematorium on the Island. You can read the sermon I preached in her life story on this site. Another problem that arose was our youngest daughter Laura being bullied at school. We hoped this would improve when she moved to the next school but it just got worse and she became very withdrawn and developed a phobia of people and even going outside the house. As an answer to this problem we made the decision to move in the hope that things would improve and because my stepdaughter Heather was living down in Cornwall we thought it would make a complete break and hopefully help Laura. We moved to Camborne to 3 Wesley Court which was just a one bedroom flat owned by the church. As it was not big enough for all of us our son Simon who was living with us continued to rent the property at Copley Bent. So we became members of the church which was Camborne Wesley Methodist and I began preaching in the Camborne circuit. Things were okay for a few weeks and we got Laura into the local school but very quickly her phobia took over again and she felt that she could not face school. We sought help from the school authorities and she was taught in a special section of the school for people with problems. After a few months the church authorities decided that we were only able to stop in the flat for the 6 month initial rental period. Houses were just not available either through the council or privately within our means and we noticed a distinct prejudice of outsiders by the Cornish people. Most of them were convinced that Cornwall was separate country like Scotland and Wales and would not consider the fact that they were only a county of Great Britain. I complained about our treatment to the superintendent minister who was completely on our side and tried to get the eviction from the flat stopped but in the end the church council won although we were allowed an extra 2 months to find other accommodation. Because we had moved to Cornwall at our own cost the LPMA refunded us the total cost of our removal and setting up home plus the superintendent arranged a payment from church funds to help us. The money we received covered the cost of moving back to county Durham,our first months rent and bond for the property This period was around 2004 to Easter 2005. During our 7 months in Cornwall we had a few scenic trips out and spent time with my stepdaughter Heather who was living there at the time. I remember speaking briefly to Caroline on my mobile phone and Tracy and her uncle Allan who were living together came down from Portsmouth to visit. I have to say that in all the visits we had from Tracy this was the best and no mention was made of the past and her problems with me and her mother.
Easter 2005 saw us headed back to the North east having been offered a house in Cockfield owned by a friend of mine Peter Simpson. I will never forget the night that we pulled out of Camborne and headed back. The tears poured from my eyes and they were tears of joy that we had got out of a very bad situation and were heading home. I really am feeling my age now at 63 in a few weeks and my arthritis and spinal problems slowing me right down. But God willing I will get this story up to date as I have only 8 years to catch up on then it should just be like keeping a diary.
The house at 91 front street Cockfield was very cosy and also an end terraced house. We settled in nicely and found the local shops very handy. During our time there the loft was converted and a set of stairs put in which made a great storage space. The outside car port which was too small to get the car into was walled up and a door fitted making a good space inside which we used as a utility room. We had a coal fire and a oil boiler which both heated the radiators. I joined the Bishop Auckland Methodist circuit and began preaching on a regular basis doing a few appointments in Weardale also. although we lived directly opposite the doctors surgery we registered with the doctors at Butterknowle as Geraldine preferred them.
During our time at 91 Front street which was about 5 years I was helping our landlord rebuild a house he owned across the fields at Middle Westgarth, Copley Bent. We worked on it for about a year and a half for 2 days a week and were probably within 9 months of finishing it at which time we planned to move in. At this time another small holding that he owned across the next 2 fields at High Westgarth became vacant. As this house was basically ready to move into we decided to take that one instead but the previous tenant had left it in such a state that it took us another 3 months to get it ready to move into. We moved in September 2009 and I loved it there as I had always wanted to live in a cottage in the country. Unfortunately it was very hard work even trying to get the garden and outbuildings looking decent and because of my Arthritis I was only able to do small amounts at a time and my condition was getting worse all the time. To be honest we moved there because it was my dream but Geraldine never liked it because of the mice and spiders and we suffered some very harsh winters in the 4 years we were there with snow drifts blocking the lane and cutting us off sometimes for weeks at a time. My daughter Laura hated it and I don't think she has ever forgiven me for moving us there. Don't get me wrong! We had some good times there when the weather was good and I got the outside of the smallholding back almost to it's original glory. Unfortunately Geraldine was very poorly especially in the last 2 years there and was constantly unwell. She had septicaemia and was in hospital for a week or so. The final straw came in Easter of 2013 when I had arranged a photo shoot with a model who travelled up from Birmingham on the Easter Sunday. We had been snowed in for the biggest part of 3 weeks and unable to get the car out of the single track lane. I managed to drive over the frozen packed snow after the farmers had flattened it and I left my car up at my son's at Copley Bent. On the day of the shoot I picked her up from Darlington and left the car at the top of the lane, managing to get a lift from a house owner at the top end. After the shoot I noticed that cars were managing with difficulty to get all the way down the lane so I brought mine down to the house ready to head over to Darlington. Well we set off up the lane but in one patch the snow had gone soft and my car went down and bottomed out with no chance of moving it. To cut a long story short and not to say something I might regret later one of the farmers at my end of the lane towed me out with a tractor and about 5 people pushing. I eventually made it to Darlington railway station for her to catch another train 2 hours later. I guess the feeling of helplessness set in after that plus the fact that my health was failing and Geraldine was unwell and everyone had had enough of living there. Luckily only a week or two later we were offered a house up in the village of Butterknowle that was being refurbished and would be ready by the end of September 2013.
So far it has only been a couple of weeks since the funeral and I am now living on my own and Laura has moved in with Sean. I am managing but when you have lived with someone for nearly 40 years there is no doubt that it leaves a hole in your life. I will add to this as time goes on God willing.
And here we are 6 years later! A lot has happened since I last updated my story so here goes. Shortly after Geraldine's death I bacame very depressed and also had two large dogs barking day and night next door which just about drove me over the edge. My troubles started when I fell one night coming out of the pie and peas supper at The church hall in Cockfield. One minute I was on my way to my car the next I felt this bone crunching smack as my face hit the floor. As far as I know I never tripped or slipped but I was in quite a state. Luckily there were people who rushed to help me and I refused to go to hospital but let them ring my son Sean. I sat in the car trying to get myself pulled round then Sean came and I drove home slowly with him following. He sat with me for several hours to make sure I was okay.
The following morning I had a call from my doctor because Sean had been in touch with him. He checked me over and said I was lucky that I had not done more harm to myself. As I could not be sure how I fell and the fact that he was not happy me living alone managing high stairs and suffering with Osteo Arthrhitis so he called in someone from social services and someone to assess my needs. The two ladies who came I knew already because they had been to my wife when she was alive. They suggested I move to a bungalow or somewhere like sheltered accomodation. Bowes Lyon House was suggested in Barnard Castle and at first I was not keen as I looked upon it as an old peoples home. However a flat was vacant and they arranged for me to view it. It was a lovely flat and as I had my own front door and privacy I agreed to take it and backed by a doctors note and reccomendations from the two ladies I was on my way to Barnard Castle.
Well I got moved into Bowes Lyon House at Barnard Castle flat 26 upstairs with a nice view of the woods surrounding Bowes Museum. I had imediate help from my care worker who organised for a homehelp from Dale Care to call every weekday for half an hour to check I was okay and to prepare dinner and sit and talk. This raised my spirits greatly. I had fallen several times by now and they installed care connect and gave me a fall detector which meant that the red button service cost me nothing. I still had a car on motability because I was receiving DLA still.This enabled me to go to my preaching apointments and to visit Sean and my daughter Laura at Copley.
I must admit that having a carer to chat to every day helped keep me sane especially in the early days in the flat although I often found myself sitting staring out of the window and literally crying and thinking to my self, how did I end up here!I never went out of the flat or outside of the main building for some time untill I gradually plucked up courage to go downstairs and mingle with some of the residents and after a while I made friends with a small group and we would meet up some evenings and I would occasionally go downstairs when there was a coffee morning on. In the early months I suppose I was not doing too bad and I drove to York a couple of times to visit my daughter Heather who was living there. I still had bouts of depression and often hade a tendancy to lose my balance and fall. The worst thing that happened to me was being at the receiving end of another resident who was an alcoholic and loved to bully people. He found out about my preaching and I soon became aware of his intense hatred toward the church. This was the start of what only can be described as over 3 years of hell because of this resident and other tradgedies that befell the family.
Following my argument with David, The next morning I was going into the lounge from the direction of the lift and when I got level with the doorway he jumped out from behind the wall and stuck his head in my face with about half an inch between us. He did not speak but just stared with a mad sort of hatred in his eyes. I sidestepped him to avoid contact but I was badly shaken and my heart was pounding as I made my way along the corridor and upstairs to my flat. Every time he saw me he would just stare without taking his gaze away and I felt quite intimidated as I knew if I took action and hit him then it would be me in trouble. He continued just popping out from behind walls and doors whenever he could surprise me. The final straw before I started to complain officially about him was one night when I had come back from church and visiting Sean and Laura. He will have seen me drive into the car park and park up and as I was walking through the building I came level with the laundry when suddenly the door flew open and in a split second he was in my face again smelling of whisky and doing his best to intimidate me. Once again I sidestepped and we never spoke but I barely made it upstairs to my flat before I thought I was having a heart attack! I got inside and sat quietly untill I pulled round a bit then I decided to ring Sean for his advice.
Sean rang Home Group and made an official complaint. Several residents were interviewed including myself because they also had witnessed the same behaviour from this drunken anti social bully who was being allowed to get worse as he always seemed to get off with just a warning and true enough after a period of investigation I had a visit from a Home Group official who said he had been warned and he promised to stay out of my way. This state of play lasted a few weeks by which time he was upsetting residents and myself alike again.
So there I was living in a nice flat in a place that had become almost a prison to me as I was frightened to go out of my door for fear of bumping into David and having a confrontation. I was finding that I would find any excuse not to go out of my door and at one time never set foot over the doorway for 3 or 4 weeks and someone even called to see if I was okay. The good side of things was my daily visit from my carer and I had quite a selection of girls in the early days all of which were very pleasant and helped to raise my spirits. I also had a hairdresser who called every few weeks to do my hair plus Sean and Laura were always on the end of the phone. I had my shopping delivered so apart from the ocasional trip out in the car on a Sunday morning to preach I really did feel I was in some sort of prison. I later called Bowes Lyon House, Alcatraz which most people agreed with.
My experience with the carers who came from Dale Care on a daily basis was good. The office organisation left a little to be desired and did not in my opinion treat the carers very well. So in the beginning after moving to Bowes Lyon I had a lot of carers in a short space of time. Some I would see for a week and others just one day and gone! The care plan at that time was to check that I was alive and well and to pop a meal in the microwave. The rest of the 30 minute call was to sit and talk and this I really looked forward to and it helped me keep in touch with the outside world. I was in Bowes Lyon for just over 4 years and during that time my Daughter Laura died and Sean moved into a flat just up the road so he then became my full time carer. I went through some terrible bouts of depression due to persistent bullying from David Raine and losing Laura hit me hard also I was assessed for PIP forced upon everyone who were on DLA and I did receive an award but lost my car because they never gave me the enhanced level of mobility.
So the carers were very important to me as was Sean and I was reassesed for my needs and a new care plan. This time I was given carers for a shower 3 times a week and two one hour sessions where the carer would take me out in the car and sometimes we would call in somewhere for a cup of tea or even go to a cafe for lunch. My bathroom was also converted to a wet room and all of this helped me face life each day. My experience with the various girls who came from Dale care was very good and after two years I finally got a regular carer and this was wonderful and she soon became like one of the family. Her name was Shirley Straughan and I must admit that by the time she left Dale care two years on I had quite a crush on her. I would treat her whenever I could and she would bring in cakes and goodies that she shared with Sean and myself. I was able to open up completely to her and if she walked into the flat and saw I was looking a bit down she she would sit me down and say lets talk about it. Yes I will always remember Shirley.
After Shirley left and was no longer my regular carer I had two carers on alternate weeks so one week I would have Deborah and the next week Sarah. I soon got along with the new system but unfortunately Sarah started doing different shifts and some weeks I would only see her for a couple of days leaving me with anyone Dale Care could find to fill in. Because of the way I felt with the bullying I was still recieving from David Raine I got a bit dowwn at times. Deborah was and still is my carer and being nearer my age allthough she looked a lot younger we hit it off imediately and I was soon enjoying her visits in the same way I did with Shirley. I continued to have those two girls as my carers till I finally moved out of the flat and escaped from David.(escape from Alcaraz as I call it)
For a few years Laura had suffered with Lymphodema with badly swollen legs and ankles. Due to the bullying which started at school when she went to Cockfield school and Staindrop she became very withdrawn and would hardly go out unless with family. The doctors she saw just kept saying she was overweight and needed to lose weight. After my wife Geraldine died she went to live with her brother Sean who looked after her just like he helped his mum when she was alive. Sadly Laura's condition got so bad that her legs were infected and she could no longer get into a car and still the doctors and carers cried the same tune that she was overweight and would not help herself. They got a bungalow at Copley so she could be on one level and the social found money for a reclining chair and bed.
After being housebound for nearly 3 years the doctors and social workers were so determined to get her out that they arranged outpatient visit to Bishop Auckland general hospital. They promised to send a barimetric ambulance and crew to transport her and assured us all would be fine. On that fateful day she said she would try and go but things went wrong from the beginning when a ordinary hospital minibus turned up to transport her. The social worker and nurse and occupational therapist set about getting her into a wheel chair which was not meant for her and dragging her accross the lawn to the waiting ambulance where they proceeded to strap her in with her legs and feet on the ground. This was a hopeless situation and the beginning of the end for poor Laura because after reaching Bishop Auckland emergency outpatients chaos took over and she spent 4 hours in the minibus with her feet down while everyone argued about what to do with her. It was said she could not be lifted because no equipment was available and although it was suggested to take her to Darlington where she could be lifted nobody could get the authority. The coroner in her report laid most of the blame on the north east ambulance for sending the wrong transport and not had even a correct needle to help resusitate her and unable to carry out cpr because of her position. Sean was with her all the time and it was evident to him that she was slipping away. She died that day and I lost a daughter and Sean lost his sister. It is achapter that could take up pages but it would be too painful to write them.
It is now February 2023 and I have at last got back to writing the account of my life story. A lot has happened since I last wrote here. I have been in my nice little bungalow for just over three years now and David Raine is now long gone from Alcatraz as I continue to call Bowes Lyon House. The last three years have been good having a nice garden with the bungalow but unfortunately my health is not so good and I have trouble with my legs which are receiving constant treatment and medication. I had to give up my car as I could not afford to pay running costs especially repairs but I bought a mobility scooter from a resident and it enabled me to get about round the town with Sean or my carer. I later sold that one and bought a smaller one that would still get me about and it could be dismantled and taken in the boot of a car on holiday. In 2022 I had a wonderful week away with Sean and Floyd at Sea Houses on the North East Coast. I also decided to rent a all terain scooter to take me anywhere I wished in the locality and follow Sean on some of his off road walks. This year 2023 we are planning two holidays together. One at Sea Houses and one in the Isle of Wight later in the year as I will be nearly 73 then and it might possibly be my last chance to visit the place of my birth.
My Brother David passed away sadly at his home in Newark in Nottinghamshire after a year long battle with cancer. He was my younger brother and did not expect to see him go before me. I don't get out much because of my leg problems but try and go out on my scooter with Sean or Deborah to keep an eye. Sean has been wonderful both as a son and acarer and Deborah is my best friend and I really am so fond of her as between the two of them they brighten up my life and keep me going. Having said that I spend a lot of hours alone and it can be lonely at times especially in the winter months.
I had a fall about 3 weeks ago as I was trying to walk outside to the greenhouse and I injured my left side and leg setting off the severe troubles I have had with my legs recently. Because I was unable to get up and spent an hour in freezing cold weather wearing just my vest and bottoms and had to be rescued it has put me off venturing outside the door and I have a fear of falling and not being able to get up.
