THE MISSING YEARS

WHAT HAPPENED AFTER 1977?

After leaving the Liverpool Blue Coat School in 1977 I worked for six years in the

South Division Schedules office of Merseyside Transport. I was based at first in

24 Hatton Garden in Liverpool City Centre, but in October 1981 we were “de-

centralised” to offices in the bus depot at the bottom of Church Road, Wavertree,

only 200 metres from the Blue Coat School. I was eventually responsible for all

school contracts and private hire operations as well as routine scheduling of buses

in the South half of Liverpool.

In my spare time I was a voluntary Youth Club leader at St James’s Methodist

Church in Woolton, and a Methodist Local Preacher, conducting Church services

on the Liverpool South-East Circuit.

In November 1982 I became engaged to Catherine Letman from Aigburth, but we split up a year later.

In October 1983, with the advent of computerisation, and plans for the de-regulation of the bus industry looming, I decided to change direction. I became a bus driver working from the Green Lane depot, mainly driving on the Prescot Road and West Derby Road corridors.

In 1987 I qualified as a car Driving Instructor, quit my job with Merseyside Transport and set up my own business, the “Mackets Motor School”. This was successful until personal circumstances invited another change.

In 1989 I left Liverpool for Dewsbury, West Yorkshire. I married and brought up three children whilst driving buses from the Dewsbury Depot of the Yorkshire Woollen District Transport Company. This company was acquired by Arriva in 1997.

I supplemented my income by doing part-time work as a driving instructor, and for a while I was partner in a Debt Management business.

My marriage broke down a few years ago, and I now live with my partner, Samantha, just outside Dewsbury. We have two daughters (Bethany and Eloise) aged 5 and 3. Bethany has a liver condition, which is described in more detail on the "P.F.I.C." pages of this site.

My other three children (Laura, Jodie and Thomas) are now 29, 26 and 22 and I have four grandchildren, (Ella-Mae, Joslin-Marie, Sommer and Dylan).

Now semi-retired; I still drive buses two days a week. I am also webmaster of Staincliffe Baptist Church's website, as well as the Dewsbury Bus Museum website, and the website of the Liverpool Blue Coat Brotherly Society of which I am Honorary Secretary. The rest of the time I’m a family man, and enjoying every minute!

"OUR HOUSE" in HALEWOOD DRIVE

The picture is the house in Halewood Drive, Woolton, Liverpool in which I grew up. My parents moved into it when it was built in 1951. My mother lived there until her death in 1988, six weeks after my brother John married and moved out. I left in 1989. Then John and his family moved back into it in 1991, when my father moved out. The house was sold in December 2003.

(A photograph of the rear of the house in 1952 appears on the "OUR DAD - TRIBUTE" page of this website)