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Linford Davies remembers |
My name is Linford Davies. I live in Cheltenham. I started life in Charlton Kings.
I went to Charlton Kings school secondary modern for boys until the age of fourteen.
Then I started on the railways at the age of fourteen; my job was fireman.
I’ve been out to Toddington to see where the Great Western trains are, that’s where the steam engines are.
I was in the army in Korea with the Gloucestershire Regiment for 2yrs.
After I came out I went into Engineering with the Wilmot Bredon Group in Cheltenham, and stayed with them for 22 years.
In 1978, February, I had the heart valve replacement put in and I had 6 months off from work. Then I went back to work. In the time I was off sick Wilmot Bredon had moved to Eastern Avenue in Gloucester. I stayed there in Gloucester until I retired.
I got two sons.
I got one younger son, he’s at a garden centre at Swindon and he’s going to take me up to a new Steam Museum - Prince Charles opened it up earlier this year.
I got an eldest boy, he’s a museum curator - he used to be at Lincoln, and now he’s near Bath. It’s the other side of Bath, a farming college, and the museum is attached to it. It only started up about a year ago. My wife has been down to see it, but I haven’t seen it.
He has a son, Joseph, he’s a year old. He had his birthday last week.
My wife is in Shurdington, and we have a bungalow there. We want to sell it and buy a bungalow in Gloucester. My wife is only 60 and she had a hip replacement last year. We want a bungalow, so that I can go back home to live.
written by Linford Davies with assistance from Lucinda Pearce-Higgins
© October 2000 Linford Davies Part of the Silver Surfers' Project by trAce Online Writing Centre for the 2000 Cheltenham Festival of Literature