The Daveys. Part 3b - 91 Cherry Garden Lane - continued

Welcome to part 3b - We are still living in Newport Essex and growing up fast!

One of the things we did a lot of in Newport was to ride our bikes. I think Gareth could ride before we got to Newport but I am pretty sure Chris land I learnt while we lived there. Gareth says - Dad used to teach you round the back of the house in the Garage area which really pissed me and my friends off because that was our football pitch lol I have a memory of somehow riding a bike and getting my fingers caught in the oily chain, but I am not sure if its a real memory or not! Anyway, one thing I am sure of is that we spent a lot of time on our bikes. Mainly riding around by the garages at the back of the house and up and then down the hill that Cherry Garden Lane was built on. We have a lot of photos of all 3 of us on bikes and even one of me and Joanne from next door posing on ours! Chris mentions...I remember sticking a branch through your wheel too out the front and you went straight over the handlebars into a bush... Gareth..  do you remember the woman at the bottom if the path outside our house with fruit trees in the garden. I seem to remember picking apples .. getting caught and being given kit kats.

One weird memory I have from Newport was in Cambridge Hospital (I think) I am not sure why but I think Gareth was in Hospital for some reason. Gareth confirms he was in Addenbrooks Hospital in Cambridge -He had lost his voice because he had growths on his vocal chords. I remember going to visit him and him being in a bed, that had a set of one-eared headphones. Being a kid I tried on the headphones, but couldn't hear anything until I put the earpiece on my right ear. Luckily we were in a hospital and one of the doctors or nurses noticed this and did a little hearing test. It turns out I had very little or no hearing in one ear! No one had ever known this and for the next couple of years, I had multiple hearing tests and doctor visits until I eventually had an operation after we had moved to Manchester. Ill tell you more about that in the upcoming posts, but it's weird that it was discovered by accident!

One of the weirdest things in Newport was our neighbours. It turned out that at sometime we lived next door a band. Not just any band but the Animal Kwackers. A 4 person band who had their own kids TV show, which was very popular at the time. They were just the people who lived next door, but sometimes we ould hear them playing music and at one point we were presented with a signed poster from them. We never saw them in their costumes, but it was really exciting to know that the people we sometimes saw on TV actually lived so close!

This is them.....

Apparently, the person in the monkey costume was a woman, who was married to or was seeing one of the others. I don't really know much more than that! More good input from Gareth...Bongo Rory Twang and Boots… I believe there were two girls in the end (The line ups changed )… The drummer (a girl) was our next door neighbour and the others  used to come round and practice next door 

One of the biggest things to happen to me in Newport was also connected with kids' TV. There was a big summer fete in 1974 or 1975 and I took part in the parade dressed as a pixie. I remember wearing black dress shoes, wrapped in green crepe paper and having my face painted! I probably loved it at the time but the photos are a bit embarrassing. (I just thought of this, but why am I the only one in fancy dress? What were Chris and Gareth doing?) However, after the parade, I remember a big stage being set up and more characters from kids' TV were hosting the fete - No other than Bungle, George and Zippy from the rainbow! (They were puppets, so it probably wasn't the real ones) I do remember being really excited to meet them although the fact that there aren't any photos might mean it was just someone from around the corner with a homemade set of puppets! Aaah who cares anyway - it was a great day!

Here's me all dressed up and a quick photo of the real Bungle, George and Zippy!

The young Davey family had a great time in Newport and dad also got to have some cool adventures. 

While we lived there he became a pioneer of surveying from the air. - By helicopter. Dad spent at least one full summer and what felt like a lot longer to us kids, travelling up and down from the Lake district every week to work up there, surveying the entire district - mostly by helicopter. He would leave on a Sunday evening after us kids were put to bed and would arrive back late on Friday evening to spend the weekend with the family. 

It was only in the next few years as we grew up that we would understand what he was doing when he was away and where he was going. But by the sounds of it, he had the time of his life. 

His week would be spent travelling around the stunning Lake district - one of the most naturally gorgeous places on earth. He would map the roads and the hills and the mountains by car, by foot and by helicopter. Later in life, he would tell stories (Our dad tell stories? No way I hear you shout!! That cant be! But tell stories he would.)  One of his favourites from the Lake District is how the helicopter pilot (Whose name I never learned) would fly low along the valleys, following the contours of the hills and along the roads, 'Buzzing' the confused car drivers just a few feet below. I have been lucky enough to fly in Helicopters many many times (We could call one up in Northern Ireland, whenever we needed it,  with a telephone attached to a tree- long story!) so I know how much fun it is, so I can understand that dad would have loved every minute.  

I am pretty sure that Buffy and I crossed paths with memories of dad when we visited the Lake District in Jan 2014. We did a hike from Ambleside along the valley and then up one of the local mountains and found a Trig point at the top. A trig point is where a surveyor or Cartographer (Map maker) would put a Theodolite, and measure the heights and distances of that location and 'Triangulate' the exact position.

Input from Gareth. From this position using Trigonometry (hence Trig point) you only have to know two measurements (e.g Height and straight line distance, both calculated by a theodolite) to any fixed point to work out the third; then from this you can work out street corners, houses etc. and therefore map all points in between by calculating distances.  All done by satellite these days ☹  and from Chris..Oh.. and 35 years later Look North West - a local TV news program visited mountains with the Ordnance survey to redo the measurements. This time with computers and satellite and found the one they were on was less than 20mm different than when dad measured with a pole and a theodolite. That's pretty awesome eh!

This allows the cartographer to accurately know where they are and therefore draw it, so idiots like me and Buffy can use the map he made in the 1970s, 50 years later to enjoy a day out and a fantastic hike. Thanks, dad - your hard work ensured we didn't get lost! Here I am with the trig point we found!

No doubt dad would have flown up the mountain instead of walking up like we did! Here he is (With the jumper I remember home wearing so so much) up a mountain doing his work. What would any sane person give to have that as an office? I have worked in some amazing places, but can you imagine having the opportunity to be there and be paid for being there? He would have loved it so much!

Here is the only photo I have of the helicopter they used and a pic dad took from the Heli.

Dad's trips to the Lake district would actually enhance our family life by a huge amount for years to come. When he went up there week after week, he didn't stay in a hotel in the middle of a big town and there were no such things as an Airbnb. Dad actually stayed on a farm, with the other guys from the Ordnance Survey team. I admit I don't know how or why they ended up staying there,  apart from the fact the farm would rent out rooms. But as I say. his travels up there changed our lives. 

The farm was in a tiny English Hamlet called Bullgill, which probably now still only have 20-30 people living there. Its about 4 miles to the North-West coast of England and a small town called Maryport and about 5 miles away from the hilariously named town of Cockermouth. There is a railway that passes close by and the River Ellen flows through the fields. It isn't the kind of place you would imagine a team of young-ish male surveyors staying for weeks and months on end, but it was where dad stayed - and dad loved it. 

The farm they stayed on was owned by a couple called Robert and Dorothy - who actually shared their wedding anniversary with mum and dad. 

Robert was a hard-working and honest talking farmer who worked every hour he could to keep his farm and family going. He had hands like shovels! His loving wife Dorothy had a heart of gold and would keep the farmhouse kitchen stocked with the most delicious home-cooked food. They also had two kids around Gareth's age - Helen and her brother whose name escapes me (Help please Gareth and Chris!)

More from Gareth...The farm was a registered Bed and Breakfast, but rooms were cheap as they were like a hired labour force to help around the farm before and after work in the Harvest time. Dorothy used to get up at sparrows, milk the cows, run the bed and Breakfast, drive to C’Mouth, run the post office, come back Milk the cows then make dinner.. she was amazing . One famous story from when we went there was Gareth shaking the Ketchup with the lid loose - (Rick - I always thought Chris did that, but who knows! I just remember the ceiling being covered in sauce!)

Gareth also reminded me of the kid's names - Andrew who was 2 years older than Gareth nd Helen who was 1 year older.

Dad hit it off straight away with Robert and Dorothy and would help out on the farm when he was there working and making maps. He hit if off with them so much, that for the next 15 years, right up until us kids left home, we would visit the farm as a family at least once a year and often more. Mum and dad would eventually stay friends with and visit Robert and Dorothy often over the next 40 odd years  - right up until mum and dad died in 2014. I would say that the friendship that blossomed between them was probably one of the most important and closest relationships outside of family, that mum and dad ever had. I will definitely be talking about 'the farm' as we all called it in later posts. But for now here's a photo of a young dad , with a young cow at the farm!

One of the things that mum and dad always tried to do (But just once or twice, unfortunately, failed  - (see the future post about 'Bikes'), was to be fair to us kids. If someone needed something, mum and dad would ask themselves, 'did one of the other kids need the same thing?'  If they did then we probably all got it. I don't mean things like toys for the sake of it, but clothes would be a good example. I know this because there are a lot of photos of us as kids where we are obviously dressed so similarly that it is hard to argue against the fact. Some of these photos are my favourites and I do wonder which of the five of us decided on that day what we 3 boys would be wearing. Jumpers, cardigans and tracksuits were obviously cheap and easy to buy in 3 different sizes and slightly different colours. Here are a few examples from the mid-70s'.

Yeah, we were a trendy bunch!

Our life in Newport only lasted 3 years - We finally left just at the end of the summer of 76 - which was the hottest summer ever! I remember a wonderful weekend just before we left Newport when we went to the Banger racing  - Uncle Tony - dad's cousin - who worked as a driver for one of the local London Mayors I think, (From Gareth again - Tony was the Chauffeur for the Mayor of Barnet) was also involved in Banger racing and he may well have invited us along. But I remember a scorching hot weekend afternoon - probably in July or August 1976, when we took the white escort - Puggy - out to the country  - with its skin blisteringly hot plastic seats - and watched old cars crash as they raced around some farmers field. It brought to an end, our stay in Essex - a place that will forever be in my heart - but took us to pastures new - as we gathered up our belongings and headed North - to the greatest city in the world - Manchester. Our family hometown, the place our hearts live and where mum and dad dragged us kids up. That story will begin in the next post, but for now, here are a few photos of our last days in that hot hot summer of 1976 in deepest Essex.