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The Whiteway Interviews (since March 2001)

This is an archive of biographies about church people and others in the local villages written by Roger Whiteway that we have published in the Parish Magazine. If you would like to contribute to our magazine or these webpages, please contact the Webmaster.

Last updated 26 February 2006

Scruff for Crufts? - The Whiteway Interview (March 2006)
by Roger Whiteway

The Editor comments: "This is Roger Whiteway's 100^th, and last interview, for our magazine (unless we can persuade him to come out of retirement!). We thank him most sincerely for all the work he has put into the text and photos over many years. Many of his interviews are still available in the Whiteway archives on the church website."

Dean comes from Market Harborough. He started work stacking supermarket shelves, became a milkman, but soon tired of the unsociable hours then joined Tungstone, who made heavy-duty batteries. He later worked in quality control for Lafarge cement and became manager of the Dunton Bassett depot of Readymix concrete a year ago shortly before he and Wendy married. ‘Our vehicles deliver from six to ten cubic metres of concrete at a time to a radius of only about twenty miles so ready-mix depots are dotted round quite liberally.’

The Hortons moved into their spacious, modern house in Fleckney six years ago and love living in the village with all its amenities. After Tradecraft, Wendy retrained as a specialist practitioner in Orthotics, which means the calipers, built-up shoes etc. that help lame people to walk. Wendy’s mother used to be the manager of Cooper’s Footline, makers of bespoke orthopaedic shoes, in Tilton-on-the-Hill and lives in Fleckney with her husband. When she retired, Noel Cooper, the owner of the business offered the manager’s job to Wendy. ‘I initially said No because I knew nothing about the financial side of the business but Mum convinced me I could do it and besides she was there as a help line if I needed it. It’s hard work but rewarding.’

Dean’s twelve-year-old daughter Laura lives in Market Harborough. She has passed her grade III on the trampoline, plays netball for her school and likes drama. Abigail is eight, adores sheep, horses and dogs, especially her Bearded Collie/Alsatian, Scruff. She is a Brownie and hopes to become a farmer.  

When Wendy is not working or running a taxi service for the girls, she sews, knits and makes beautiful necklaces and greetings cards. Dean watches the Tigers, goes out shooting and plays the occasional round of golf, but the church has changed both their lives fast.  From almost a standing start fifteen months ago they have experienced  the Alpha Course and been confirmed. Wendy helps with the 6-10 year old Adventurers and Dean has been appointed a Steward. They think the congregation is a bit reserved and would like the church to reach out more, but believe that Jaffa is a big step towards that. They have also joined the Pastorate. ‘We meet in the church hall every two weeks and use the course book called ‘Purpose-driven Life’. ‘Groups like Alpha and Pastorate let us ask questions that we would feel shy about asking otherwise,’ they agree. Wendy added ‘It was the same at the Refreshment Day at Launde Abbey the other day. Eunice, Jane, Valerie and Myrtle led the discussion and meditation; we were truly refreshed.’

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Football & Fine Wine - The Whiteway Interview (November 2005)
by Roger Whiteway

In a small, pretty terraced house in the quaint warren that is Main Street , Kibworth Harcourt live Colin, Louise, Felicia and Fergus Hynard.  Colin and Louise moved in after their marriage in 1997. The front door is barricaded by a toy box and visitors use the ‘entry’. ‘It’s a squash for us,’ said Colin, ‘but imagine how the people before us managed with five children!’ They parked me in a comfortable chair with a glass of chilled white port - a good start. With voices lowered on account of the children sleeping upstairs, they told me how they had become involved with St Wilfrid’s. ‘Louise was gardening at the front when a man came delivering the card from the combined churches with the times of the Christmas services. It gave us the lead we wanted. Our interest was relayed to Steven and in quick time he was round telling us about St Wilfrid’s and welcoming us. The reception the wardens and congregation gave us was equally warm and we immediately felt comfortable.’

Louise lived in Varese in Northern Italy as a young child and spoke Italian better than English. Her father was a director of an international advertising company and the family moved to Surrey when Louise was five, before settling in Tugby.  She worked in the marketing side of two international firms of accountants before becoming Community Development Officer at Leicester City Football Club during Martin O’Neill’s golden years in which the club went to Wembley three times. Until recently she was responsible for controlling entry of the owners, trainers, jockeys and guests at Leicester Racecourse until she found that the job’s highly variable timetable did not fit in with the children’s routine. She continues to be a part-time marketing manager for accountants Mark J Rees.

Colin was born in Leicester and read business studies at Wigston College . Instead of joining the family firm of wine merchants immediately, he started work in a sports shop to gain experience. Then the manager of one of the firm’s ten wine shops had a heart attack and Colin was asked to replace him.

‘My father knew all about the traditional European wine sources,’ said Colin. ‘I was attracted to those of the New World so we complemented each other well. I later worked for wholesalers and an agency. I was chosen to take part in the Champagne Academy one year. Each of the top sixteen Champagne houses chooses one person from the wine trade whom they believe will be a good ambassador for Champagne . The candidates spend half a day with each of the producers, tasting and learning about the amazing variety and subtlety of the wine. The marques of champagne differ in many ways including the production method and the choice of constituent grape varieties. The process by which each bottle is turned by hand and gradually tilted so that the sediment falls towards the cork to be removed  before re-corking is called ‘remuage’. The wrists of the workers develop lumps the size of half billiard balls. Although the process can be done mechanically, part of the output is still turned by hand to preserve the traditional image and mystique of the wine.’

Felicia Hynard is five, studious and artistic and attends Church Langton Primary School . She is a Tick Tock. Fergus is twenty months old, sporty and artistic and goes to the Old School Nursery.

Both Colin and Louise attended Alpha and are now going to the Pastorate Course, children permitting. Colin is a member of the Men’s Group and the Social Committee. Louise attends Jane Wood’s home group. St Wilfrid’s gives them a strong sense of belonging to a wider family. They are firmly in favour of the screens. ‘When you have your children with you, as in the All Age Service, you don’t have to hold a book or sheet and you can sing out better,’ they say. ‘The crèche in church works well too. Placed where it is, the distraction is minimal and parents and children are happy.’ They look it!

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Cocoa in the Blitz - The Whiteway Interview (December 2002)
by Roger Whiteway

  ‘I was transcribing some organ music for the piano,’ John Prophet told me, ‘when I realised I was doing it without my glasses.’ Only two weeks before, a cataract had been removed from his left eye – significant for at 92 he still conducts 8am communion services at St Wilfrid’s.

Canon J.R.H. Prophet, resident in Stuart Court for the last four years, plays the piano daily and once studied the organ in Southwark Cathedral under Dr E.T. Cook, who broadcast regular organ recitals on the wireless. He wanted to be a professional musician from an early age, playing at a mission when he was fifteen and for St John’s Highbury when eighteen but instead he began studying for the ministry at St John’s Hall. He was ordained in Chelmsford in 1934 and became assistant curate of St Mary’s Leyton before being appointed Vicar of St Andrew’s Walthamstow.

  ‘I was there for most of the war,’ he said. ‘I was turned down for military service as a chaplain on medical grounds but I didn’t feel too guilty for we East Enders were in as much danger as most of those in uniform. Those who took refuge in our church hall slept under the platform, which fortunately remained intact while most of the hall was wrecked. The church was hit and demolished later but the vicarage was spared. We were kept busy with fire watching and serving cocoa to the afflicted.’

John then worked in Newcastle from 1944 to 1961, where he was vicar of two churches, St James and St Basil. During this period he completed his BA at Durham. ‘It was,’ he says, ‘in some ways the most satisfying period of my ministry because I was still young and energetic. We even ran a successful weekly envelope scheme before the word ‘stewardship’ was coined.’

In 1961 Bishop Ronald Williams made John Prophet Rector of Blaby. He wrote and illustrated a fascinating and entertaining history of the parish whose first incumbent John de Hylle was appointed in 1218. He began a fifteen-year term as Registrar of Readers. This involved supervising their training, until they passed their examinations, and earned him the title of Canon.

After twelve years John began his last incumbency – that of Church Langton. Sadly his first wife only survived the move by six weeks. The parish gave him ample scope for historical research. Its most famous rector, William Hanbury, an eccentric idealist and arboriculturist, planted countless specimen trees on church land in the hope of selling them and financing a university in Church Langton with its own important collegiate church. His father bought the living for him and four generations of Hanburys continued the dynasty up to 1900.  John wrote and illustrated a scholarly history called ‘William Hanbury and Church Langton’. 

‘Hanbury was by no means the only famous rector of Church Langton,’ John told me. ‘Lawrence Saunders was burnt at the stake in Coventry, for heresy, during Queen Mary’s reign, John Bourchier, rector in 1562 was the last Abbott of Leicester and Polydore Virgil, the ultimate in absentee rectors, was given the living by Henry VII and never went near Church Langton in his life!’

After ‘retiring’ in 1980, John and his second wife went to live in Oakham. He conducted services at Egleton, Braunston and Sutton Bassett and at the Bishop’s behest, toured the diocese persuading parishes to lodge their ancient registers with the County Archives. Between 1986 and 1990, three books of John’s delightful drawings of the towns and villages of Old Rutland were published.

I asked him ‘What do you consider the church’s most significant developments since your ordination?’

‘Synodical government has given the laity more involvement and is more democratic than the old Church Assembly,’ he said. ‘I didn’t welcome the ASB; I tolerate it now but I am glad the Book of Common Prayer is still authorised. I recognise the ordination of women priests and the value of the work they do but I shall find it harder to accept women bishops if they are created in due course. Conservative?  You could say that.’

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Driving Bargains - The Whiteway Interview (November 2002)
by Roger Whiteway

‘Look out for the building site,’ said Terry Wilks when I sought directions to his and Sue’s house. He did not exaggerate. Their dwelling on the A6 is undergoing radical transformation and Terry is doing it all himself including the plumbing and electrics. ‘I am reasonably useful with my hands,’ he admitted ‘and you can’t trust all tradesmen to do a decent job.’

While Terry plies his trowel, Sue is a full time driving instructor. ‘The course was long and rigorous, as it should be,’ she explained. ‘There were difficult written exams but I was determined to make it my career and succeeded. Whereas twenty or thirty years ago there were hardly any female instructors, there are now four or five thousand out of a UK total of twenty-eight thousand.’

Terry and Sue met in their teens in Nottingham where they lived. They went to the same youth club. ‘No it was definitely not a church youth club,’ asserted Terry ‘or you wouldn’t have seen me for dust.’ They married in 1966 and lived in Beeston not far from St John’s College, which was to have a profound effect on them.

‘I went to church when I was young, attended Sunday school and bible classes but was not a true Christian,’ said Sue. ‘Many of our neighbours in Beeston were mature students and devout Christians. It really showed. They were kind and hospitable. People were welcome in their houses at any time. One couple we knew well invited me to a meeting at the college. Before I went, I prayed that God would give me a sign that He really existed.  The leader of our discussion group was a Sri Lankan man called Lakshman Peiris. I can’t explain it clearly but I saw a kind of radiance in him that convinced me that he was filled with God’s spirit. That was my sign. 1973 was the year I became a Christian. The couple that invited us later took bibles into Russia at a time when it was dangerous to do so and now work for the Lord in Warsaw.’

As is the way with men, Terry followed Sue’s example a year later and became an equally firm believer. This made for unforeseen difficulties.

‘We had joined with another couple to found a car repair business,’ said Terry,  ‘collision damage and so on. Because we were Christians and not shy about it, the partnership no longer seemed to work. It’s difficult to explain why but we didn’t share the same values and we had to get out. It was messy but we managed. Ironically they were the couple that introduced us to the people who took Sue to that vital meeting. Then we moved to Derbyshire and traded cars for the next eighteen years.’

‘The used car trade is an honest business,’ Sue assured me. ‘There’s a large volume of low mileage vehicles from company fleets and hire firms that have nothing wrong with them. We used to buy them from the auctions. Auctioneers have to give much tighter guarantees than dealers. Private sales are the worst of all. There is virtually no come-back if something goes wrong.’

Terry, Sue and sheepdog Jess moved to Kibworth via Great Oxenden. Their son Julian and his wife Ann live in Mowsley, both work for Harborough District Council and attend New Life in Fleckney. Their daughter, Jane works as a staff nurse in Queen’s medical centre in Nottingham and also lives nearby.

‘We’ve always been too busy working to develop a lot of outside interests or hobbies or to join clubs. Jess provides our exercise and we enjoy collecting antiques – or you might call it junk – and entertaining friends,’ they told me. ‘We found it easy to fit into St Wilfrid’s. We joined the Alpha course last year and it’s now our duty and pleasure to pass on the good news to as many others as possible via our home group.’ We all wish them much success.

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… His Wonders to Perform - The Whiteway Interview (October 2002)
by Roger Whiteway

Malawi lies landlocked between Tanzania, Zambia and Mozambique in the heart of tropical Africa. Its twelve million inhabitants live in an area the size of England. Christopher Lee has recently returned from six weeks there.

‘I wanted to spend time in Africa with a Christian organisation,’ he told me, ‘and found this project run jointly by TEAR fund and the Canadian charity Emmanuel International. The aims of both are to spread the word of God while increasing people’s prosperity through making them more self-sufficient.’

Twelve Christian men and women aged from 18 to 22 from the UK met with charity representatives for three days training. 

‘We flew for twelve hours via Johannesburg to Blantyre, the biggest city in Malawi. Although it was their Winter, it was hot and dry. Our village consisted of numerous groups of huts, with neither doors nor windows, South East of Lake Malawi, which is 365 miles long. They grow crops and keep goats and chickens but the staple diet is a kind of hot maize porridge and eggs. There is great scope for improving the agriculture, and therefore nutrition, for there is limitless water in the lake and river Shire for irrigation.’

The team’s mornings were spent in building two new brick classrooms for the school.

  ‘All the Malawian men are able to build their own houses so we acted as builders’ labourers, carting bricks, erecting scaffolding etc. In the afternoons we taught Bible study, English, Maths and horticulture. They need to use more compost to increase water retention in the soil.’ Christopher’s face cracked into a wide grin at the idea of his teaching someone about gardening.

  The team went to nearby Zomba to learn about the culture and history of Malawi and enough Chichewa to greet and thank people. ‘As Malawi was a British protectorate until 1964, English is taught in the schools and used a lot. Although the country is among the world’s poorest, with an average daily income equal to 85p, most of the children get to primary school, half of those move on to secondary school and a handful make it to university. Three-quarters of the people are Christian and one-quarter Muslim but there is no apparent friction. Islam honours Jesus as a prophet after all. We stayed in the training college of the Evangelical Baptist Church of Malawi and went to the brick church in the village. The native priest asked us to conduct the service for a hundred or so besides us. There was good lusty singing accompanied by drums.’

  It was not all relentless toil for Christopher and the team. ‘We had a weekend beside the lake, where we swam, canoed and water-skied. Later, on our river safari we saw crocodiles, hippos and one elephant. During our drive through the national park we came across lots of monkeys, deer, more hippos and warthogs. Lions, giraffes, elephants, leopards and cheetahs are not as prevalent as in Kenya. Neither, therefore are tourists.’

  Conditions in their living quarters were basic but comfortable enough. ‘Although there was a pump and a diesel generator we fetched our own water while the girls did the cooking. The geckos ate most of the insects; window screens and mosquito nets saved us from too many bites. The rest of the wild life consisted of bats, fish eagles and songbirds. There was a big initiation party in the village but they thought we would disapprove of the rites and warned us off. When we had free time we played football with the village men. As a result of this contact twelve of them became Christians and it was a wonderful example of how God acts through us if we let him.’  

  I asked Christopher what he was doing next. ‘I’m looking forward to reading Maths at Durham, where both my parents went, in October. Then the team plans to meet up again in Belfast.’

  ‘And would you go again?’ I asked. ‘Definitely. Either there or some other part of Africa and certainly with TEAR Fund. I recommend the experience to anyone who likes a challenge.’

  How about it, Mothers’ Union? 

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God's Own Country ...The Whiteway Interview (September 2002)
by Roger Whiteway

‘Stuart Court is a great place to live, except that it is too far from Cheshire and too close to the Old Swan,’ say Timothy and Rosemary Atkins. ‘Cheshire is God’s own county.’ Timothy was vicar of Bunbury, some ten miles from Chester (and six other parishes) for nearly twenty-five wonderful years before retiring to Farndon, only a cricket shot from Wales.

Timothy was captain of cricket at Oakham. Although he only managed 2% in mathematics, his Latin was good and he won a choral exhibition in 1941 to Emmanuel College Cambridge where he read classics. From 1942 to 1945 he served as a Lieutenant in the Royal Marines and was awarded the DSC for his part in the Normandy landings.

‘I went ashore on Gold beach with five men in a landing craft full of high explosive in order to demolish some of the enemy’s obstructions. Our craft was stuck on the beach for a week and damaged but eventually an American Liberty ship took us and our partial wreck back to Portsmouth.’

Timothy’s next posting was to Southern Italy to train for a possible invasion of the South of France. ‘It was not too hard to take. I landed in Naples and stayed in Messina for six months in the home of an opera director, visiting such places as Bari and Brindisi and learning Italian. On returning to England I trained in the New Forest for jungle warfare in Burma before being demobilised and returning to Cambridge.’

This time he read Theology and spent two years at Ridley Hall. From here he was sent to St Peter’s Blackley in Lancashire for work experience and lodged with Rosemary’s parents. She had trained as a teacher and had a class of fifty-six children of three and four years old to look after! They married in 1948 and Timothy was ordained Deacon in Leicester in 1949 on a stipend of £250 a year and began his ministry in Melton Mowbray.

A year later the Atkinses moved to Preston under Gordon Fellows, later Bishop of Sheffield then to Baxenden near Accrington. The people were poor, the cotton industry was in serious decline and the winters were harsh but there was cricket to play and Accrington Stanley to watch for compensation. Their first son, Simon was born in 1955, their daughter Bryony in 1959 and Adam in 1965. They have five grandchildren, the youngest of whom is seven months old and belongs to Adam and his Ecuadorian wife Maria.

‘We flew to Quito, where Adam was teaching in the American university and travelled to Cuenca for the wedding,’ Rosemary explained. ‘The ceremony was simple and the reception was held up in the Andes with lots of music and dancing and breathtaking views all round.’

Timothy’s next posting was to Mildenhall where he was chaplain to the RAF base and they both enjoyed the 

hospitality of the US Air Force. Then in 1963 he became Vicar of Bunbury. The Haberdashers Company are the patrons of the parish. Princess Margaret was their President and visited the parish three times. As a result, Timothy was appointed Chaplain to the Haberdashers and enjoys two good dinners in London every year.

‘Lead stealing was popular during my time at Bunbury,’ said Timothy. ‘We watched for many a night to try and catch the thieves.  The introduction of aluminium-laminated lead made the practice not worth while but we had to restore the roof at a cost of £200,000, which we raised in two years.’

When they retired to Farndon, Timothy took one service a week and acted as honorary chaplain to Chester Cathedral Rosemary organised Meals on Wheels, was the deanery synod representative and helped with the Old Folks’ Club, the Women’s Institute and the Mothers’ Union of which she remains a member after fifty years and. She enjoys attending the weekly meeting of the Kibworth Methodist Women’s Fellowship with its excellent list of speakers. She sews, reads and goes walking and bird-watching with Timothy. He watches Leicestershire at Grace Road and sings with Market Harborough Choral Society, practising in Stuart Court to the delight of his neighbours.

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Making Ripples ...The Whiteway Interview (July/August 2002)
by Roger Whiteway

I felt honoured when Marilyn Pinger offered to make me a member of the Mothers’ Union. ‘You don’t have to be a mother nor even a woman,’ she assured me. ‘When Steven asked me to be Enrolling Member I told him I was quite unsuitable having been married and divorced twice. “On the contrary,” he said. “We can do with someone who’s not squeaky clean – someone more typical of what life’s like today.” You can’t argue against that kind of logic so I eventually agreed.’

It was fortunate for me that Marilyn’s daughter Daniela took a break from revising for the last of her ten GCSE papers and helped me to dig out more information from Marilyn that I could have on my own.  Marilyn left school at fifteen and set up as a self-employed canine beautician in her mother’s bathroom. Marilyn’s Dogs’ Hairdresser became the premier business of its kind in the county and was her livelihood for twenty-four years.  ‘Some of them looked pretty silly but the owners were paying and the dogs didn’t look in the mirror,’ she said.  Her own dog, Jessie, did not look the victim of excessive grooming but the two Burman cats, Cleo and Humphrey seemed carefully coiffed. ‘I’d always wanted a Burman – one I mean - but these are brother and sister and I couldn’t split them up.’

Marilyn is someone who cares. She is on the side of any creature that is having a rough time. ‘Daniela and I have been to Africa many times and we’ve seen the most abject poverty mixed with unimaginable wealth. Life is unfair and we have a duty to try and even things out. I campaigned against Apartheid, making myself rather unpopular in South Africa. I joined Joanna Lumley in a march from Trafalgar Square to protest peacefully against the export of live animals for meat.  I’ve been a vegetarian since I was eleven and so has Daniela. The things I do may look like drops in the ocean but even drops make ripples and the ripples attract attention which gradually changes things.’ 

Marilyn was on holiday with a girl friend in the town of Remagen, near Bonn, whose bridge over the Rhine was fought over bitterly in WW II. They became locked out of their hotel and could not raise anyone’s attention. Resigned to spending the night on the street, they went into a bar for a drink before braving the elements when another hotelier came in and took pity on them, offering them a room in his flat. That man was Heinz, Marilyn’s future husband. They married in 1985 and Daniela was born in 1986 in Germany. Marilyn gave up canine coiffure and worked in the hotel. Groups of Americans came to see where the famous battle was but when the high season was over, the family travelled to sunny South Africa for some months to escape from the miserable German Winter and Daniela went to school there for a term each year for four years. They grew to love Africa and went back to Kenya this year.

Marilyn organised the memorable parish Oberammegau visit in 2000 and she still receives letters addressed to the Revd Marilyn Pinger begging her to organise a tour of the holy land.

Daniela is in the middle of a complicated and extensive family. Her half brother Darryl from Marilyn’s first marriage is thirty-six and her father’s baby daughter, her half sister, is only two and a half. She wants to be a vet and is going on a five-day veterinary course soon. She is on call to help with the rescue of marine mammals such as stranded whales that require re-launching. 

Marilyn has taught children with special needs, still supervises lunches at school and works as a self-employed carer with the Social Services. The Red Cross presented her with a prestigious Humanity Award at a luncheon in London hosted by Angela Rippon with guests including Richard Wilson and Anthony Andrews. One of her old school teachers suffered a house fire. Marilyn cleared up after it and helped the old lady through the ensuing trauma and depression. ‘Anyone else would have done the same,’ said Marilyn.

Sure.

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God's Sense of Humour ...The Whiteway Interview (June 2002)
by Roger Whiteway

On entering Richard and Maggie Stapleton’s house in School Road I was confronted by the black dog Josh and a huge mahogany elephant from Ghana. They went there for eighteen months in 1971, a year after they were married. Richard was a partner in the family firm of building surveyors in London and was sent out to supervise the building of a clinic and access roads through the jungle. Maggie, a teacher, trained teachers while out there and Richard became seconded to Kumasi Unversity to teach quantity surveying.

‘White people were rare,’ Maggie explained, ‘and superstition reigned. The witchdoctor had to lift an anti-metal juju before the boat that Oxfam had given was allowed to convey patients across the lake to the clinic. The King died while we were there and the tradition in the Ashanti region was to assume that he had been murdered. Non-Ashantis risked summary execution and although we were exempt, others had to lie low until the dust settled.’

Maggie was seven months pregnant when they returned. Phillip arrived in 1973, followed by Alan in 1975. Maggie contracted severe back trouble and was advised not to have more children so she and Richard adopted Becky in 1981. She is a student but suffers from ME and presently lives at home.

Richard continued to work in the family firm but ran a youth club in Peckham and a Pathfinder class. Although he attended church and even preached he only became a deep down Christian when he married Maggie. ‘We became convinced of the benefits of Christian camps and residential courses. Young people grow more spiritually in a week’s camp than in all the rest of the year,’ claims Richard.

‘We prayed a lot for guidance and a friend suggested that we start a Christian conference centre,’ Maggie told me. ‘I come from Bournemouth and prayed that we would find a place by the sea.  I suppose it’s God’s sense of humour that after seven years of searching we bought Hothorpe Hall six miles from here and as far from the sea as you can get.’

The Stapletons ran the conference centre for sixteen years with another couple, building forty more en-suite bedrooms to accommodate 150 resident visitors. ‘We took on overseas students to work there for bed, board and pocket money.  It gave them valuable work and language experience and for some, the ‘pocket money’ was as much as a normal salary.’

God told them it was time to move on and they came to Kibworth two years ago to recruit and organise area representatives in England and Wales for the charity Care for the Family.  Its aims are strengthening family life and helping those who are hurting because of family break-up.  ‘It’s no wonder marriages fail and families break up,’ says Richard.  Rob Parson’s “Sixty Minute Marriage” gives an hour of wonderful advice on marriage and parenting which can teach us all something valuable.  

Now that twenty representatives are in place, Maggie will look after and maintain them and Richard will organise their subsidised holidays in the UK for groups of up to a dozen single parent families. They raise people’s self-esteem, help them to strengthen their relationships with their children and create lasting friendships.

Another project awaits Richard and Maggie. The Scripture Union has asked them to take a party of a dozen young people, who will have to pay £400 each, to build a ‘rope course’ in Ukraine.  This challenging obstacle course of telegraph poles and ropes will provide healthy activity and body building exercise for the Ukrainian youngsters and the benefits of a purposeful fortnight’s toil for those who build it. The radioactive contamination from the Chernobyl disaster is still causing sickness and poverty.  The materials will cost £2,500 and contributions are welcome.  ‘The Scripture Union operates in two hundred countries and runs camps and holidays involving thousands of volunteers,’ Richard explained.  ‘You didn’t think they just distributed bible reading material, did you?’  No comment.

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The Power of the Spirit ...The Whiteway Interview (May 2002)
by Roger Whiteway

Would you buy a second-hand car from these people? At some stage the answer must have been ‘Yes’. Barry Ellwood and his brother Bruce were both in the motor trade and decided to start their own business. They rented a showroom in Market Harborough and began selling used cars. They progressed via a Renault agency to the substantial group of twelve petrol stations, which they sold over a year ago.

‘Petrol is better business than cars,’ Barry explained. ‘No one ever brings a tankful of petrol back with a complaint, except once. Our suppliers delivered diesel instead of petrol and quite a few cars conked out!’

Liz modelled clothes and worked as a secretary before she married Barry. ‘When they started the business I drove cars and ran the office (let’s not mention the salary). I still enjoy modelling for Francesca.’

Liz and Barry married in 1970 in Liz’s hometown of Melton Mowbray. Their first abode was in Greenway. Then they and Bruce built houses for themselves beside the A6 in Kibworth Harcourt. They now live in the manor in Shangton that was the Rectory and lies close to St Nicholas’s church. The house has space, tranquillity, distant views and lovely furniture. The lumps in the nearby fields show where the village was before being wiped out by the Black Death.  We drank wine in the conservatory and had a meandering conversation, rather than an interview, while I tried to make notes. 

Their daughter Sarah was born in 1972. She works in the Market Harborough branch of Bonhams, the famous auctioneers and attends St Wilfrid’s regularly with daughter Naomi and husband Peter. Daniel is four years younger, is engaged to Sarah Wood and is a self-employed gardener. He studies at Brooksby and his clients include Barry and Liz and a number of churches. He and fiancée Sarah live on the premises and are company for Liz’s father who is ninety-six and has a bungalow in the grounds.

Liz became a Christian eighteen years ago with Louisa Feltham’s encouragement and enjoys her frequent appearances with SWORD. She has been to Spring Harvest four times.  ‘There is something for everyone – all kinds of services from contemplative to exuberant.  “Happy Clappy” is an overworked cliché, but why shouldn’t you let your joy overflow if you feel that way?  You dance and sing and clap at a football match.  There are also wonderful talks and study periods.  I take books full of notes.  The theme this year was “You’ve Got Mail” about the
letters to the seven churches in Revelation.’

Barry looked slightly less convinced. ‘I went along for part of the time. I played golf with David Taylor and this time didn’t hit him on the ear with a ball. I have, however been twice to the Alpha course and was confirmed two years ago. While kneeling at the altar rail for a blessing I became convinced that nothing less than full membership of the church would do. I’m a churchwarden of St Nicholas’s and a member of the Shangton Society, which exists to do beneficial things for the community. We received £60,000 from English Heritage to restore the church. It is only used for a service once a month so I would love to replace the pews with comfortable chairs and use it for meetings and functions like concerts, as we have no village hall. I feel we should do the same in St Wilfrid’s.’

The Ellwoods have holiday homes in Mallorca and Aberdovey. ‘They are used a lot by us and our family but we still prefer to live in England,’ Barry explained. ‘We love our house and garden and our friends. We’re members of Rotary and Inner Wheel. We keep fit with tennis, golf and swimming and we enjoy plays, concerts and dining out. We had a holiday in Prague recently. The restaurants were great and there was music everywhere we went. In short, we’re very, very lucky. Anyway I haven’t retired yet. We’re starting up another petrol station in Nottingham’. Very fulfilling, no doubt.

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Coffee & Cake ...The Whiteway Interview (April 2002)
by Roger Whiteway

There are two kinds of people in this world; those who work in Information Technology (computers and stuff) and those who haven’t the slightest idea what they are talking about’ – Anon.  Peter Highcock is one of the first kind. He did not go to university (neither did Lisa) but did a three month course in IT at ITEC then gained invaluable experience working in a PC shop before joining Girobank in Bootle.  Lisa was managing Girobank’s secretarial and typing department in 1990 and at the company’s Christmas party they went to the bar singly and left it together.  They married in Barbados and returned to live in the Wirral. Their daughter, Charlotte, was born seven years ago and two years after that they moved to Kibworth.

Both Lisa and Peter were brought up in Christian families.  Peter’s grandfather was a Baptist minister and his father plays the organ for the Baptists and the Church of England.

‘I used to go to chapel in the morning and Sunday School in the afternoon, said Peter.  Unlike our Sunday Clubs here, fun was definitely not on the agenda at Sunday School.’

Peter lived in North Wales from the age of eight to twelve. The Welsh he learned is a bit rusty now but still discernable in his voice.  Lisa was born in Brighton and moved to Lancashire at the age of two.  She had a conventional upbringing, moving through Sunday School, Brownies, Guides and Rangers. Charlotte enjoys Tick Tocks, with which Lisa helps, and Rainbows, which leads naturally to Brownies and Guides in due course.

Lisa works as a classroom assistant at Church Langton Primary School. ‘This mostly consists of teaching children with special needs individually. Charlotte loves the school. Class sizes are between twenty-five and twenty-seven and everyone knows everyone else. Barbara Knight, although no longer Rector of Church Langton, maintains close contact with the school and takes assembly once a week. I’ve recently become a governor and fortunately there are courses for new governors to help us learn the ropes. My special responsibilities are History and Information Technology.’

Peter’s work takes him to Nottingham where he has been a Project Manager since last June with Experian who employ 3000 people in the UK and countless more in the rest of the world. Travelling to Nottingham and working there occupies Peter twelve hours a day. ‘I disagree with working long hours as part of a macho ethic. I firmly believe that we should all be able to fit our work into eight hours a day. The French and Germans can so why not us?’

Lisa has a business called Ice Girls. She accepts commissions for making and decorating cakes for special occasions, particularly weddings.  The bits cut off are fed to Peter and Charlotte.  Peter watches the Tigers occasionally and cycles for exercise. He has taken on the organisation in the parish of the annual ride for the Council for the Preservation of Historic Churches.

Charlotte has a luxurious playroom full of soft toys and wall charts with an educational flavour.  Her much-loved rabbit Hazel lives outside in a comfortable hutch.  Because they lead busy lives, the Highcocks make the most of their holidays.  Before Charlotte’s arrival they visited Thailand, the Maldives and Dubai.  Although they have taken Charlotte to America and tried Scotland in the rain and Lanzarotte they now favour the Dordogne and Normandy for climate, food and relaxation.

Peter and Lisa were much influenced by the Alpha course although Lisa still feels deprived because Peter came home so late that she could not join in the suppers! They would not change the church itself and certainly not remove the rest of the pews but they believe the hall needs extending to accommodate the clubs better.  ‘Why not serve coffee in the hall every morning when mothers deliver their children to school?’  Lisa suggested. ‘Instead of standing outside school chatting they could do it over coffee and perhaps join in other church activities as well.  They might even form their own coffee rota.’

Now there’s an idea!

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Once bitten ... - The Whiteway Interview (March 2002)
by Roger Whiteway

I was amazed when I heard how fellow church members wept with laughter at Mike Dack’s impersonation of Frankie Howerd for I had only seen him in SWORD’s ‘In the Line of Fire’.

Mike was born in Luton, went to Dunstable Grammar School and set his sights on RADA. His father, a Vauxhall employee and a devout Methodist insisted that he take a secure job so, for the sake of his mother, who had longed to teach but looked after her sick mother and young siblings instead, he became a teacher.  He took an English degree in Leeds, did his teacher training in Nottingham and returned to Leeds to teach English and Drama.  During this period he became a successful football coach.

‘Although we played Rugby at my school, I coached football at the school where I taught and we won the Leeds schools cup five years in succession.  Four of my boys turned professional and one, David Harvey, kept goal for Scotland and was voted best goalkeeper in the 1974 World Cup.  Then I coached the Leeds and District FA under 15 team that reached the Yorkshire final and the sixth round of the English Championship.’

In his late twenties Mike left the Chapel but kept his faith. ‘All my ancestors preached and sang for all they were worth. Father played the organ, Mother was in the choir and I went to chapel for two services and Sunday School every week. Once on the way back from chapel, when I was about seventeen, I stopped to boot a football around for a few minutes and I felt guilty for days! Quite frankly I think I had religious indigestion.’

Mike moved to Leicester to become head of English at Mary Linwood School, which is now closed. He coached the EMGAS women’s team. They reached the semi-finals of the women’s FA cup in the seventies and lost to Queens Park Rangers. He also joined Leicester’s Little Theatre.

‘My mother passed on her love of acting and singing to me. I competed in music festivals as a boy soprano and acted from quite an early age. I played Fagin in the Grand Theatre in Leeds. I have been in every music hall in the Little Theatre since I joined twenty years ago.  Sometimes I’ve been chairman but I most enjoy impersonating the old comedians like Jimmy Durante, Jimmy Knox, Max Miller, Rob Wilton and Frankie Howerd.’

Other memorable parts for Mike were Captain Corcoran in HMS Pinafore, Hobson in Hobson’s Choice and Bottom in A Midsummer Night’s Dream.  He was quick to point out that for the part of Worzel Gummidge he needed a false nose!

For relaxation Mike likes listening to jazz and swing.  He takes his holidays in Sheringham where he can soak up the peace and quiet and avoid flying, which he refuses to do, but may risk the tunnel one day.  Another phobia is dogs.  ‘Ever since I was bitten on the shin as a child I have gone to extraordinary lengths to avoid them such as taking a taxi past a playing field where I knew a mongrel used to lie in wait.  Even my sister’s dog Barney scares me to death.  If only pet lovers would teach cats to bark they would be just as much fun as dogs and the cats would have the advantage of a second language!’

When Mike’s parents became ill they moved to Leicester. ‘I retired early, as many teachers do, and was able to take more care of my mother, who died in 1999. Thursday was the day we usually went out to do her shopping and so on.  Some time after she died I realised that I had a free Thursday. I was driving around, saw the Coffee Stop sign and decided to call in.  I was given a friendly welcome and so I became a helper. Then I joined SWORD and offered my services as a lesson reader.  It feels good to be going back to my roots.’

Don’t miss Mike taking off Frankie Howerd in ‘Up Pompeii’.

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Having a ball - The Whiteway Interview (February 2002)
by Roger Whiteway

If your children enjoy playing football, you can thank Blair Grubb for his part in enabling them to play in Kibworth again. When Kibworth Town obtained their new ground in Fleckney Road, Blair with John Sewell, who is a qualified FA coach, and Neil Kilpatrick decided to form a youth team.

‘They train in the sports hall on Saturdays and play fourteen matches per season on alternate Sunday mornings,’ Blair told me. ‘We started with under sevens and now have three groups of boys from seven to ten and teenage girls will begin training at Easter. People have complained for ages that there is nothing purposeful for the youngsters to do so someone had to get on and provide it.’ The boys now compete in the Leicester Mutual League, Division 11.

When they realised that there would be no Carnival last year, Blair, with Naz Choudhury, Neil Kilpatrick and others decided to organise a Half-Marathon and a Fun Run. It was a huge success and attracted some five hundred runners. Fiona, Blair’s wife, ran in the Half Marathon and their daughter Lorna in the Fun Run.

‘It’s a shame that the Carnival has packed up,’ said Fiona.  ‘When we lived in Bavaria for two years, we found the Germans very enthusiastic about public entertainment. They had fourteen public holidays a year, mainly for religious festivals. What’s more the shops were all closed on Saturday afternoons and Sundays. Wűrzburg, where we lived was in the North-West of Bavaria, in the region of Franconia. Some areas are very Protestant and some very Catholic. The Catholic churches are tremendously ornate – almost vulgar – but beautifully maintained. That goes for the whole environment, which is scrupulously clean and tidy. Everyone expected and achieved a high standard of living. All along the Main valley there were numerous local wine festivals in which people would celebrate the airing of the new vintage with processions, music and dancing in the squares – all great fun.’ Blair agreed. ‘I was doing research into arthritis at the university and Fiona was working part time as an ophthalmic nurse. The professors’ wives looked after the ex-patriate academics in a properly organised manner, taking us on trips, showing us round the amenities and entertaining us lavishly.’

Fiona and Blair were both born in Scotland. They met when Fiona went to study nursing in Edinburgh and Blair was reading biological sciences at Edinburgh University. They married in 1987 and Blair’s post-graduate studies took them to Newcastle, Germany and back to Edinburgh before they landed in Kibworth in 1993 with baby Calum. Lorna was born a year or so afterwards and they are both at Kibworth Primary School. Fiona became involved with St Wilfrid’s through Sparklers and is an enthusiastic helper with the Sunday clubs.

  ‘The clubs provide the children with a good Christian grounding. Even if they choose leave the church when they grow up, they have something to come back to,’ she believes.

Fiona works for four hours a day at the University library. ‘At my level it doesn’t require any formal qualification and it fits in well with school hours.’

Blair is a senior lecturer in the Department of Physiology of Leicester University. He teaches students working for their bachelor degree in biosciences and school leavers in the pre-clinical medical programme.  His research speciality is still arthritis.  He used to play the guitar in a Ceilidh band. ‘We were in great demand, especially for Hogmanay, when we earned really useful fees. Unfortunately we couldn’t afford nor probably get a band for the Ceilidh we ran in the grammar school hall last New Year’s Eve. However we had a great caller and a hundred and twenty of us danced the night away.’

The Grubbs look forward to their annual holiday in Brittany. ‘We bask in the sun at a farmhouse near Quimper with acres of land and not far from the beach.  Our special treat is to go to the market to buy lovely fresh seafood and cook it ourselves. Then we come home completely refreshed and get ready for the football season.’

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Ultra Violet - The Whiteway Interview (December 2001)
by Roger Whiteway

Violet Parry was born in Liverpool in 1930 of Welsh Baptist parents.  The Welsh voice still shows.  ‘God called me to be a missionary when I was thirteen,’ she told me as she made coffee in the bed-kitchen of her apartment in Stuart Court.  Aware of her vocation, she trained to be a teacher and began her career in Liverpool where she was in charge of a class of fifty five-year-olds. 

‘I was advised to put the blackboard across the doorway to prevent them escaping.  I enjoyed my job for three years before going to Carey Hall in Selly Oak to do missionary training.’

Then followed a year’s training as a deaconess in the East End of London, where she preached, visited people and taught in Sunday school.  Knowing she was destined for the Belgian Congo (Zaire now), she studied for her certificate at the Colonial School in Brussels.  At the age of twenty-seven, Violet sailed to Africa.  Zaire is nine times as big as the United Kingdom so it took her ten days by boat up the Congo and a day by lorry to reach Lingungu, a jungle village in the middle of the continent.  She was put in charge of a primary school for fifty girls.  She only began learning the language, Lingala, on the passage out.

‘The lack of mod cons was nicely balanced by the profusion of mosquitoes, praying mantises, spiders and snakes. Every room had a snake stick and I’m afraid we bashed first and asked questions afterwards,’ Violet recalls.

In 1960 the Congolese demanded independence. The army enforced proper elections but suspicious tribes people attacked them.  The army fired back wounding some villagers, who were treated in the missionary dispensary. The soldiers accused the missionaries of supporting the rebels and made them clear the jungle to prevent ambush.

On 30 June 1960 in the aftermath of independence a rival tribe captured the missionaries and condemned them to death but before the sentence could be carried out their own host tribe spoke up for them and the UN airlifted them out.

‘To give you an idea of the spread of Christianity,’ said Violet, ‘a thousand people from our area the size of Wales came to Lingunga to take communion on Christmas Day.’

A year after being expelled Violet was back in a French-speaking school in Yalemba teaching the bible to twenty-year-old would-be evangelists. There was little food and much hostility from the Congolese army, who suspected the missionaries of espionage and stirring up rebellion.  After three years the missionaries were arrested.  Knocked roughly into line by their captors they feared the worst.  Fortunately a former pupil recognised them, assured the ‘authorities’ that they were good people and they were released for deportation.

Violet spent three weeks in the hospital for tropical diseases in London suffering from amoebic dysentery then returned to teaching in the East End although exhausted by her illness.  ‘I was told that a return to Zaire would be fatal and it was ten years before I could relax my careful diet and face a school dinner.’

She was appointed head teacher of a Church of England school in Kilburn that had 210 children of eighteen nationalities.  Not all could speak English and two-thirds were poor enough to receive free school meals. At the Vicar’s suggestion, Violet became a lay reader.  In 1982 God called her again - this time to be a deaconess in the Church of England.  She worked for St Mary, Bryanston Square for three years.

 ‘I moved to Stamford.  Peaceful? Within my first year a man was gunned down and a schoolboy kicked to death.  In 1990 I began to draw my pension, received a lovely retirement present of a clock and was immediately put in charge of the parish for three weeks in the vicar’s absence!’

During her ‘retirement’, Violet spent her time preaching for the Methodists and the United Reform Church, visiting people and taking funerals, except for a five-month period teaching English in Poland.  Heart trouble in 1999 forced Violet to retire properly.

Quite a circuitous route to Stuart Court, wouldn’t you say?

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Happy Families - The Whiteway Interview (November 2001)
by Roger Whiteway

Ken and Janet Hoskins have three normal, happy, healthy children.  Frances is reading psychology at Sheffield University, Isobel is working for her A2s at Gateway Sixth Form College and Colin is in his GCSE year at Robert Smyth.  Parenthood is a blessing for them as for most married people: others dread it.

‘I was at a Spring Harvest in Prestatyn in the Eighties,’ said Ken, ‘and we were asked to pray that we could share in God’s care for his world.  The words “God weeps for the unborn child” created so much compassion in me for babies and their mothers that I was moved to tears myself and I knew that I was being prompted by God to do something to help them.’

Fortunately Ken met two women who had been in contact with the ‘Care for Life’ organization, which has 150 branches throughout the UK and reaches out to women in crisis.  They resolved to open a local branch and in September this year they succeeded in opening the Jakin Centre.  The word Jakin means ‘established by God’ and was the name given to the right hand pillar of Solomon’s palace (see 1 Kings Chapter 7).  The Meadows Community Church bought a disused factory in Wigston and converted it for worship and other social activities.  The Jakin Centre is allowed to use one of its rooms for two mornings a week and on Saturdays by appointment for counselling.

‘We get people with all kinds of problems,’ Ken told me, ‘including pregnant teenagers, women who fear that their babies are deformed, married women whose babies are not by their husbands and rape victims.  Doctors refer patients to the centre, who are suffering depression after an abortion or a miscarriage or who need support during the pregnancy. Our role is more to give information than advice. Whether the mothers decide to have the baby, have it adopted or even have an abortion is up to them, but our job is to see that they make their decisions with as much knowledge as possible. Naturally we abhor abortions especially if they are carried for mere convenience.  In the thirty years since the Abortion Act became law five million abortions have been carried out in the UK.’

Janet was born and bred in Yorkshire. Ken was born in Australia and spent his early childhood in Durgapur near Calcutta, and moved to Nottingham. They met in Harrogate at a disco when Ken went there on holiday. Janet was working for ICI - the first woman allowed to work on their mainframe computer. She has brushed up her skills by taking a course in Office Technology at Wigston and now works full time at the Council offices in Market Harborough. She has also done special needs teaching at the High School on a one to one basis.

Ken trained as a mechanical engineer and has been a freelance project manager for the last fourteen years. His work takes him away from home for long periods for he must go where the job is.  One such assignment was in Rihaud, central India where a coal fired power station was being built. The commissioning was tricky because the plant was finished before the rail link and the supply of coal with three-ton trucks could not keep up with the appetite of the boilers.

Janet has joined a reading group.  The members meet every month to discuss and criticise the book they have all read.  She enjoys the Women’s Group which meets twice a term and has enjoyed talks by Sue de Guy, principle of the Primary School and Sandra Herbert of Radio Leicester. She also does very accomplished animal paintings. Ken lets off steam by playing hockey for Kibworth Hospitals (no, you ask him why it is called that) with Colin. In St Wilfrid’s you will see Janet on duty at the book stall, as sidesman and serving coffee and hear Ken singing in the choir or playing rapturous chords on his guitar for SWING. Pillars of the church may be a cliché but is in this case appropriate.

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Giving Support - The Whiteway Interview (October 2001)
by Roger Whiteway

The Friends of St Wilfrid’s organisation was Richard Darke’s idea.  He argued that there are many people in the community who do not attend church very often but would willingly subscribe towards its upkeep. He was right in this and in his choice of chairman.  Michael Whitcher has been in the chair for five years and organised two appeals which, with concerts and other activities, have brought in a very necessary seventeen thousand pounds.

Michael and his wife Margaret are keen members of the Kibworth Harcourt Conservation Society.  ‘We have to conserve our precious heritage and St Wilfrid’s is part of that,’ they agree.

Michael did his National Service in the Royal Signals in Germany during the Soviet blockade and Berlin airlift.  On demobilisation in 1950 he joined the firm of gentlemens’ outfitters his grandfather Arthur Whitcher founded, which had ten branches stretching from Stroud to Chesterfield.

‘I was responsible for buying merchandise and supervising the branches,’ said Michael.  ‘I used to visit forty clothing manufacturers in the UK to look at their designs and patterns and choose the stock.  It was fascinating work but unfortunately most of those industries have succumbed to competition from overseas and we no longer have the same intimate contact with our manufacturers.’

Michael and Margaret married in St Mary’s Knighton in 1952.  Raising funds is meat and drink to them.  Margaret has been on the highly successful local Lifeboat committee for twenty-nine years and is its chairman.  At a recent fund-raising luncheon, the speaker who was the coxswain of the Aldeburgh lifeboat asked who would man the boats when no-one but London commuters and retired people lived there. She is also very involved with the Children’s Society but perhaps her greatest contribution to the world of charity was to start the Leicester branch of Compassionate Friends.

‘Our son Christopher had been killed in a road accident and I was explaining to Claire Rayner, to whom I was giving a lift after a function, that I did not know of any organisation who could give support to families after the death of one of their young ones.  She recommended the Compassionate Friends and sent me their address.  As there was no branch nearby, I started one.  I had plenty of helpful publicity from Joan Stevens in the Mercury and Morgan Cross on Radio Leicester.  Helping other people helped me too.’

Margaret’s other great passion is flower arranging.  ‘The Young Wives at St Mary’s were roped in to do the flowers.  Mothers brought the children 

after school and we all had a good time. I was interested enough to take my City and Guilds and become a demonstrator. I’ve arranged flowers in interesting places like Chatsworth, Woburn and Westminster Abbey.  I also learned the art of Ikebana and escorted a Japanese master on his English tour.’  Margaret is a member of St Wilfrid’s Flower Guild and we can see her art at major festivals and other Sundays. Michael is there too constructing any necessary support rigging.

Michael is modest about the MBE he was awarded in 1989 for political services. A photograph in their immaculate sitting room shows him (dressed in a perfectly fitting morning suit of course) with Margaret and their daughter Jayne, who has come to live in Kibworth with her family.

Michael has sold the shop which was part of the Shires and is down to two branches. ‘It doesn’t seem to make me any less busy,’ he assured me.  He offered to stand aside and let someone else chair the Friends, but the Friends were much too satisfied with the job he was doing.  ‘I’m pleased with what the PCC has been able to do with the money we’ve contributed,’ he says.  ‘The stonework is all in good condition, the roof doesn’t leak any more and the new wiring in the tower has made sure there is no risk of a fire.  I’m glad that the organ restoration has started and I know we’ll all be proud when we hear it booming out again in a couple of months.’

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Legal Eagles - The Whiteway Interview (September 2001)
by Roger Whiteway

No sooner had I entered the home of John and Tricia Hunt than I had a brimming goblet of wine pressed into my hand. I ruminated on the roundness of its nose and its length on the palate while considering the tactics of the interview – as usual, none.

John and Tricia are both solicitors. After leaving school they took their degrees – Tricia at Leeds and John at Liverpool, which exempted them from part 1 of the solicitors’ exam. They completed part two in a year at the Guildford Law College. Tricia sat behind John in lectures. It was not made clear whether she flicked ink pellets at him but she obviously admired his back view and presumably the front did not disappoint. They went their separate ways to do their two years of articles, for which Tricia was paid £10 per week compared to John’s £8.

John’s first and only job has been with Harding and Barnett in Leicester. Persistence has paid for he is now senior partner of the firm which handles civil litigation, wills, probate and conveyancing but no criminal work.

Tricia came to Leicester in 1976 and married John in that year. Most of their married life has been spent in Smeeton Westerby. Tricia was clerk to the five-member Smeeton Parish Council for fifteen years, guiding them through the complications of planning applications, dangerous road bends, benches, litter bins, street lights, dog mess and all the things that make council meetings so interesting. Her legal training was also valuable during her service in the Citizens’ Advice Bureau in Lutterworth.

Jessica, their daughter is fourteen and is studying for GCSE at Leicester Grammar School where she favours science subjects with netball and tennis for light relief. She has been a keen member of Rock Solid and attended the recent camp at Caldecott. She will be joining Ignition soon and enjoys the experimental services that they help to organise. She recalls vividly the sight of dry ice vapour rolling spectacularly down a ‘mountain’ in one such service. She is also a bell-ringer.

The Hunt family moved to Wentworth Close in 1996 when the house was new. ‘The proximity of the golf course doesn’t really tempt us,’ John said. ‘We used to play when we were first married but we were neither of us very good and it takes up too much time. We get our share of exercise with the Monday evening walks and plan to participate in the forthcoming Sunday series.’

John was a founder member and past president of the local branch of Rotary which meets every Tuesday. He and Tricia also attend keep fit classes and play badminton and bridge. Tricia is a member and former treasurer of Inner Wheel which is the ladies’ organisation of Rotarian’s wives. She recently completed a computer course leading to the Office Technology for Adults qualification which she puts to good use in her new full time job with the Leicester District Land Registry. The office is in the old PEX sock factory.

‘Whenever property changes hands the new ownership is registered. There is still a huge backlog which may take a generation to clear, but once land is registered it guarantees the title of the owner and conveyancing of future sales is much more straightforward,’ she assured me.