FAMILIES, FRIENDS, HOLIDAYS AND HOMES
We have been very lucky and very happy to have these friendships, several of them now over four generations
- Lifetime friendships made at school
- Lifetime friends who are family,
- Neighbours who became friends for life,
- Lifetime friendships made in sport,
- Lifetime friendships made through business
We enjoyed many brilliant holidays and brilliant experiences with friends and family. Time has taken some of them away from us but I intend to remember them till the day I die and these photos ensure I will remember them
- Portugal where we and Jill and Hadyn had beautiful homes between Vale do Lobo and Quinta do Lago in the 1980/90’s– not crowded in those days. One wonderful memory after another
- Majorca with Derek and Avril whose children still have the beautiful apartment. Two great speedboats Derek’s Riva Aquarama (elegant) and my Sea Ray V8 (fast!), name Rugby Special. We enjoyed the hordes of friends Derek and Avril had there
- Club Med in Montpelier with JBK – an incredible Crazy French. Crazy Belgians and we represented the Crazy Brits. A never to be forgotten holiday. I have a film of Club Med saying goodbye to us – I need to find a way to get it on here – fabulous
- Club Med in Corsica – dropped 1 mile out to sea and had to swim back for the certificate (still have it) – crazy French
- Club Med in St Moritz – enjoyed some fun with two lovely Rt Hon ladies – crazy but lovely
- Aviemore for New Year with our Scottish friends Ann and Jim
- France, Pra Loup skiing with our kids very young and our French friends Francois and Irene
- Austria, son Mike and I skiing with Mick and debbie
- Easky, County Sligo, West Ireland – the crazy ‘White Swan’ holiday with our friends Joan and Laurie and their kids and our kids, same age. Laurie had a special task never to be forgotten
- Christmas with Mickey Mouse in Orlando – unforgettable as was the transfer to Phoenix where our local guide was Barry Carter, a best friend from the UK now resident there. Same trip skiing in Breckenridge with Mike and Tim and Jet-skiing with Angela
- Golf tours with Hadyn and Graham, especially to Ireland, Italy and France, crazy and fabulous with great people
- Rugby tours for unforgettable memories – Elthamians, PSW’s, Late Niters, Golden Oldies Junior Colts, Pink Elephants Blackheath, London Scottish, Old Cranleighans – I will try to find some and insert them in my rugby memories folder
More to come as I open more albums
There is too much to organize so I am dropping bundles of photos into this section.
The bundles are large covering many years, many people, many places and many incidents – recalling when and where keeps my mind working! Sharing these memories with family and friends is very stimulating
Most photos have numbers – if you have any question or comment contact iain@age-fit.com
Some friends from school and OE’s and sport and holidays will always bring back many memories – Barry Ellis, Rob Carter, Adrian Davies, Roger Davies, Mike Bairstow, John Lloyd, Mick Shepherd, JBK Williams, Chris Bensted, David Stevens, Paddy Mahon, Ken Carter, Bill Eve, Andy Cushing. I can spend hours just remembering the times I spent with each of them. Sadly some have passed on.
Sometimes Business friends become something even more – sometimes an intense friendship, sometimes a long lasting one. Unfortunately few photos, so if you had business friends recalling those great moments makes your memory work harder – great!
I have very special memories of Norman Ward, a one off outstanding man, the closest and best friend you could want
Norman’s partner Peter Cottrill was another very good friend for many years as was David Iveson. Two top Englishmen
Avram Ben Simon was a long time customer and friend who invited me into Wickman Bennett. Despite the eventual problems in the ‘machine tools for Iraq’ fiasco that destroyed my working capital, millions, and made later years more difficult, I will never regret the years working with this hugely capable and energetic manufacturing man and I consider reviving Wickman as the best work I ever did.
From Holland – Robert Bouland and Frans Van De Vliet. (Frans was our Amsterdam Sevens local organizer). High quality men
From France – Francois Amato. We did many trips together and spent some holidays with Francois and Irene, a lovely couple
From Switzerland – Rene Gurtner and Michel Muller. Two more men of the highest quality. A relationship going back to the 1960’s with Serge Muller, Michel’s uncle
From America – Michael Goldstein. My closest overseas friend. My friendship with the Goldstein family started in the 1960’s with Michael’s father Harold. Michael and Marsha also visited us socially, enjoying especially some of our motor racing trips. Two more very good people in America were Hussein Suheimat and Dave Eagan
From Italy – Andrea Tajariol. Another relationship going back to the 1960’s started by my father and Amedeo, Andrea’s father, who I met several times during my early years. He and a great Italian machine tool dealer, Enrico Biganzoli, encouraged me to learn to communicate in Italian. We did a lot of business together and when I purchased Wickman in 1989 Tajmac took over as Italian agents and supported strongly our growth. In 2000 Andrea purchased the huge ZPS machine tool factory in Zlin, Czech Republic. A few weeks before I had walked out of Webster & Bennett with the VTC’s killing it. For two years I helped Andrea develop this brilliant potential before coming back to restart Webster & Bennett after the wreckage by the VTCs. I will never know if I should have stayed in Zlin.
Tajmac-ZPS in Zlin. The complete machine tool manufacturer
Experienced machine tool design – a quality foundry with pattern making – extensive well equipped machine shops – high quality huge assembly shops – world wide support network
It was a real pleasure to work here because I had seen similar facilities in Alfred Herbert, Wickman Bennett, Webster & Bennett, BSA and Matrix Churchill totally destroyed by inept government in a decade of nonsensical de-industrialisation
If I win the lottery……………………
HOMES FOR MEGA MEMORIES – We’ve had 15!
These fellows lived with us in five homes!
On the right is my favourite. We had the opportunity to totally refurbish this Georgian house in a beautiful position overlooking Blackheath, right in front of the London Marathon start for the elite runners. Adding the Orangery you see in the photo of the rear was a beautiful success. It looked as if it was part of the original build.
1963 ELTHAM – our first home was in a new build block of flats, Fairlands Court in North Park. After 18months Tim arrived. The only real memories I have from here was hearing the announcement of the assassination of John Kennedy and when we left for the Blackheath tour to East Africa Time was not walking. When we came back he greeted us on both legs. With Tim walking and Michael on the way we decided we needed a house with a garden
1966 SIDCUP – we bought a very nice, traditional build house in The Drive. I have plenty of good memories of our time here. The garden was a good size but the road was a route used between Sidcup station and Foots Cray to avoid Sidcup High Street and the boys were getting adventurous on their bikes. I was already travelling a lot and wanted a better location for Angela and the boys. We were attracted to a new development in Bickley
1970 BICKLEY 1 – The Spinneys has a cul de sac finish just past the house we bought. It was our first experience of interacting with neighbours. This turned out to be really good with several families, in particular with Dini and Pat Patel and, next door, The Harris family. Dini was a Doctor and being two doors away he took the responsibility to manage my recovery from pneumonia and pleurisy. Socially he was hilarious. The Harris family remain our close friends to this day. An exceptional relationship
1973 BICKLEY 2 – Pelham Lodge, Pines Road. We bought this Edwardian house from a small school that closed. Typical large, elegant rooms. Three floors, the top floor became a large apartment for three great rugby friends, JBK, Paddy and Sheps. We put in a tennis court – great friendly enjoyment and when we moved again we put in another one This was the first home we gave to Gussie our beautiful vintage Rolls-Royce 20-25. We were here too short a time
1976 PARKLANGLEY 1 – I left the family business and needed working capital. We needed to downsize. We bought our doctors house in Barnfield Wood Road. On a double plot we were able to easily fit in a tennis court. I was travelling extensively so this house was great for the Angela, Tim and Mike – great location and close to family and friends. To help boost my working capital Derek and Avril Harris bought Gussie from me and started a wedding adventure that has gone on for over 50 years Our friends the Harris’s now had houses in France and USA as well as Chislehurst. They liked our house in Park Langley and when I needed to move to the Midlands they bought it! Derek who poses with me on our tennis court built a garage block on it for his growing collection of vintage Rolls-Royce cars! Despite that we remained best friends till he sadly passed.
1982 BARSTON – The next move was motivated by business – to move to the Midlands. The Malthouse Barston was a a great home for a family with teenagers. Three cottages in 6 acres – we loved it for eight years till the countryside was annoying my asthma and we moved into a new house in Solihull. Probably the happiest home we have had and it was also a period of non stop business success. We had to rebuild our group after Margaret Thatcher’s about face on defence spending. The move to the Midlands released capital that I used to build the small fortune that enabled me to buy the UK’s no.1 machine tool company in 1989. During this period in Barston I have some wonderful rugby memories from The Heineken Sevens in Amsterdam, Tim playing for Scotland in 1987 before he sadly broke his neck. More great memories come from our motorsport business when I was racing Jaguars and Porsches. The annual Barston Barbecue took place in our field, great fun. This was the home where we enjoyed so many visits from family and friends
1990 SOLIHULL 1 – my asthma initiated the move to this new house in Whitefields Road finished to the specification we wanted. Very nice but without the character we had grown used to. I was working too hard, my company was too close in Tile Hill and I took the step to move back to Chislehurst and commute
1991 CHISLEHURST 1– with the boys in America this was a crazy move for Angela and me. It was a huge new Berkeley Homes house in Camden Way but I loved it and for the first time really fell in love with a garden. All my spare time was tidying up a beautiful natural hilly garden that had been overgrown. All that work on the hill was to benefit someone else when my world fell apart as the ‘machine tools for Iraq’ fiasco got started and eventually I was to lose the house exchanging it for the next house plus a few hundred thousand which I used to stop the bank panicking
1993 CHISLEHURST 2 – although without the design and construction qualities of the Camden Way house this house in Riverwood Lane was a very nice home, located next to Green Belt woodland and with a nice mature garden and swimming pool. Great memories of family and friends in the pool and The Mickey Mouse squad which was the group of Blackheath players who trained very hard to become a hugely successful Rugby Sevens team. Summer Sunday morning training finished with fun competitions in the pool – nobody could keep up with Gary Furneaux
1994 BLACKHEATH – St Germains Place. my favourite home. Beautiful proportions due to its Georgian heritage. We were lucky that we had some really innovative and experienced rebuilders to transform the poor interior into a wonderful home. Although noisy at the front the rear garden was a wonderful, peaceful haven and with the addition of a new superb Orangerie to enjoy the garden in all weathers this was my second favourite garden. Favourite home, second favourite garden – if I could go back to one of our home for the rest of my life, this is the one.
Sadly it was stolen by the company that had fought hard to win the appointment as liquidator of Wickman. A £7m liquidation fund was not enough for them they contrived a fight that lasted for years, brought huge fees out of the liquidation fund to their lawyer friends while costing me so much to contest it that all my working capital was eaten up and then we had to sell this beautiful home and our beautiful home in Portugal.
1999 BECKENHAM 1 – Mulberry Cottage, The Knoll – our first experience of renting. Very nice, quaint cottage in suburbia! Best memory there is a barbecue with John Gallagher and Abi Ekoku
2000 PARK LANGLEY 2 – Hayes Lane. The company that wanted me to head up their newly acquired company in Czech Republic advanced me the funds to buy this house. Nothing special but very nice and well located for my wife who did not come to CZ with me.
2003 SOLIHULL 2. Gainsborough Crescent. Buying my company back from the Venture Capitalists who had wrecked it took us back to the Midlands. An ordinary house but with the potential to turn into a very nice one. We did that and enjoyed doing it. We were to stay here longer than any other house!
2014 CHADWICK END. The Warwick Road. A downsize move. We wanted to buy it but age caused problems with the mortgage. The vendor rented to us and we stayed there until 2019 when he needed to sell
2019 DORRIDGE. Walcot Green. A very nice rental home but it turned out that it would probably need to be sold within a few years so we looked for a further downsize
2022 SOLIHULL 3. Shelsley Way. Too strong a downsize. For once I was in negative mood because 2022 was the worst business year and 2023 the worst health year of my life. 2024 – upsizing in our 80’s
In my time in Czech Republic the company put me up in a beautiful period home in Breznice, a few miles out of Zlin in beautiful countryside. In the roof was a family of bats!
In 2004 I spent a year in Belgium and the company put me up in a gorgeous period typical Belgium riverside home in Namur. Overlooking the busy River Meuse was something to enjoy
