Chris and I then went on to South Twerton juniors in Southdown, where walking to and from school was the norm, until Chris got a bike! Well the only bike I had to ride before that was to borrow Steve Sawyers red jobby in our street, taking turns trying to master balance!
Playing ‘football’ with the Matthews twins, Mike King and Steve Sawyer. The first and only time we played the round ball game.
Learning to swimming in the Cross Baths, made easy by the thick (with minerals) warm water luxury. Chris was a great swimmer and the envy of his class mates.

Oldfield Boys School – 1963-1968

Following junior school and failing our 11+, Chris and I went to Oldfield Boys due to our homes being south of Morland Road and thereby split up from our friends in South Twerton, who went up to Westhill.

Oldfield brought fear and trepidation to many a newbie and the first year playground was a hot bed of learning. Not of course what the learning teachers necessarily wanted you to know, but the whole darker side of life. Fighting (you had to stand up for yourself or you would be bullied), swearing (a new word every week!) – so all the essential things that helped you develop into a good and honest member of Bath society! Not.....

I distinctly remember the pain inflicted by 6 strokes of the cane for spitting, which I had unwittingly done outside a classroom with my friend and prefect Roger Haig ‘six of the best’!

Graham Pitman remembers Chris as being a very nice boy with an infectious smile and humour, while occasionally being mischievous. Chris used to regularly take the mick out of Graham for his bizarre haircuts, which he used to get done for free at the cop-shop! Chris would say “nice bum-cut Graham, they should lock up the barber”

Back in July ’67 Graham and Chris were in Vicky Park listening to Tony Blackburn opening Radio One, with the Move singing ‘Flowers in the Rain’, which Chris thought was a “crap song” and preferred watching the girls in the park instead – I guess we all did, didn’t we?

Chris was a bit of a trendsetter and introduced Graham to a very fashionable blue overcoat, which Graham still has today! While they were in the 5th year, Chris and Graham got caught playing truant in Vicky Park and duly forged their ‘excuse letters’, however Mr Sweet didn’t believe them and both got detention for truant and the cane for forging the letters!

New friends and relationships were formed which peaked during a bizarre school trip to Biarritz in 1966, with friends such as Min Hawkins, Trevor Jones, et al. Eating strawberry pastries until we were sick! Shouting ‘froggies’ at the local teenagers and getting chased down the road by ‘big boys’ in a car!

MODS – Scooters, Tonic Suits, Ben Sherman, Levis, Brogues and of course dance nights at the Pav (Monday nights) and the Regency (Sunday nights)! Chris was a great dancer and with his black bushy ‘siders’ and back combed hair, pulled all the birds for a dance, making him the envy of us all! By the way it took till I was 20 before I actually needed a proper shave!!

We saw some great bands back then and I remember one such occasion when we pushed and shoved our way to the front row by the stage, to look up Tina Turner’s mini skirt! I also remember getting hit by a cymbal from Roger Daltrey’s tambourine while they trashed their set and being blown away (literally) by Pink Floyd and the Move!

We often pooled our pocket money beforehand to buy a round of beers outside the Golden Fleece in Widcombe!! Trouble was trying to concentrate the day at school!

Dudley Herbert remembers our fishing days, yes we all loved fishing! One such day Dudley and his dad took Chris fishing in Longleat waters, which in the swinging sixties was a big day out. Both the boys caught a mixed bag of fish and a great day was enjoyed by all.

Chris was indeed a ‘dedicated follower of fashion’ (homage to the Kinks for that one) and fastidious about his hair, which was back combed and centre parted, taking a lead from Oldfield’s ‘blonde bombshell’ Nick Gough. Nick always carried a rolled umbrella which Chris and some of us copied, creating that man-about-town look!

We all played rugby for the school along with Roger Haig, John White, Chris Norris, Dave Farnan, Ashley Schofield, Ashley Watkins, et al and so became ‘volunteered’ into the Oldfield Old Boys Rugby Club, enjoying many away games and Club Tours!

We sometimes played for the school on a Saturday morning and then for the Old Boys in the afternoon! Wearing our muddy kit was the norm and I am sure we will all be reminiscing about these times later today – if we can still remember!!

Stothert & Pitt Engineers – 1968-1972

Leaving school and getting a job in Bath was relatively easy in those days, especially the big employers were Stothert & Pitt, Pitman Press (where both my mother & father worked, so that one was out) and of course the MoD. Chris and I chose engineering at S&P and went for or ‘interview’ with our fathers present, to see if we were bright enough and physically able to sign up for an engineering apprenticeship. We all started in the new engineering training school in September 1968, also signing on were our friends Lee, Ashley W and Ashley S, all in the vain hope of carving out a career as mechanical engineers.

Lee Hudson also remembers those crazy days and after leaving school, 12 of them hired a Gullivers coach and took themselves off to Calpe just outside Benidorm in Spain, where they shared 2 lovely villas. One day during the 14 days of drinking and fun, Chris and Lee were sat on a low wall so Chris could show off his new ‘holiday shoes’, very stylish suede casual loffers. But as Chris was taking them off to put them on the wall to relax, he slipped and pushed the shoes over the wall. Looking over the wall they found that the other side was a 30ft drop into dense floribunda, shoes lost forever. So next day Chris took himself off and set off to the local market and bought some more!

Chris never bothered with scooters and went straight for the car, only old bangers in those days were indeed bangers!

I remember being picked up by Chris one day and he said “look out where you put your feet, cos the floor is a bit thin!” “Thin” I said, “I can see the bloody road!” Fred Flintstone style we called it.

City of Bath Girls School – What was it about those posh birds with their straw boaters in the summer? In 1973 Chris and I married two of them Janet & Alison, with Barry scooped up another one in Sheila!

We couldn’t afford to live in Bath after marriage, cos we were skint, so we up sticks and moved across the border to Corsham with a Shared Housing Association scheme (West Park Road) for 5 years, without this help and support I am sure we would have never got on the mortgage ladder.

Instrument Research Laboratory (Leafield Engineering)

Travelling back and forth to Bath for work also became expensive so we applied and got jobs at the local precision engineering works called IRL. They made switches and triggers for MoD armaments – cant say anymore as I would have to kill you!

Chris and I got to meet lots of new friends (Keith, Tom, Nobby)! Then along came the babies.....

1975 – Janet gave Chris twins (Sarah & Clare) followed by Alison producing our first born (Antony), all of them seemed to spend most of the summer heatwave of 1976, bathing in a paddling pool in our back garden.

Chris loved his girls and was justly so proud of them both as they developed and grew into the adults, he spoke about them regularly.

Chris was a great engineer, in fact he would help anyone out of a difficult situation, on the other hand I soon realised that making things was no longer for me (my scrap rate was shocking), whereas talking about engineering was a job I enjoyed and eventually became very good at it, so it was time to move on.

Ali and I with Antony and Amy, left Bath in 1980 but we all remained good friends with the Bath posse and met regularly thanks to Lee Hudson keeping us all together.

Well that’s a brief history of my friendship with my good friend Chris, I shall miss him greatly, as I am sure we all will?

The funeral will take place at Haycombe Cemetery at 1pm.

We will be celebrating Chris’s life at the Oldfield Rugby Club in Shaft Road from 1.30pm where you are all welcome to lift a glass or 2 in his name.

The family have asked that all donations go to Vasculitis UK.