When I started with British Aerospace in 1986, I actually took a drop in pay, seeing this as a necessary sacrifice to start my new career, and move away from the uncertainty at Royal Ordnance. I had worked there for eleven years, but I felt that the opportunities at British Aerospace were greater. Within five […]
I love listening to Radio 4, and have done since the mid 1980s when I decided that I was too old for Radio 1, too young for Radio 2 and not quite posh enough for Radio 3. I couldn’t put up with the adverts on commercial radio and I’m not a sports fan (ruling out […]
About two miles from Brindle is a stately home called Hoghton Tower which was built in 1565, although the family can trace its ancestry back to the Norman conquest. In March 2002, the owner, Sir Bernard de Hoghton, made an appeal for more tour guides, since many of the present ones were almost as old […]
Both children took part in the St James’ Players pantomime for a few years, and in 2005 it became my turn, not on the stage, but behind the scenes. I was asked to help by the stage manager, who was a friend, and the first job I did for him was to make a couple […]
Coinciding with my involvement with the Cubs, I was also on the St. Joseph’s school PTFA, helping to organise events to raise money. I became PTFA secretary in later years, and in 2003, became chair of the committee. I was quite willing to do my bit to help the school, especially since it was easy […]
I was never a member of the Cubs or Scouts as a boy, although I often think that I would have enjoyed it, so as my children were growing up, I was determined that they would have this opportunity. I signed up as a Cub leader in September 1998, and I thoroughly enjoyed it the […]
I joined BJC following a recruitment visit of the Blackburn group to British Aerospace in about 1990. My boss thought that it would be good for some of his young managers to join what was marketed as the largest out-of-hours training organisation in the UK. I’ve just looked for it on Google, and I was […]
I like to be active, and I’m not very good at saying no to people and therefore, quite soon after I moved to Brindle, I was asked whether I wanted to join the village hall management committee. It was sold to me as a good means of getting to know people and I’d be helping […]
Dad had a huge garden: he’d almost one hundred rose bushes at the front and a large vegetable garden at the rear including several dozen fruit bushes and some trees. I helped in the garden occasionally, but had no real interest as a child. I probably absorbed quite a bit of horticultural knowledge, because when […]
Hardly a long-lasting hobby, this was something that I enjoyed for a few weeks over the winter period as an alternative to watching TV in the mid 1980s. It was basically painting by numbers but using wood veneer. The process was to use a scalpel to cut out shapes from different types of wood veneer […]