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Fred and I met in 1996 just after the end of his second marriage. It became obvious that we were both very well suited, despite the age difference of twenty years and my background in show business. We both hailed from Bolton, had attended the Bolton School of Art and Design, shared the same driving instructor, liked antiques, gas lamps, pit-head gears and had a mutual love of spanners (which I always called ‘Sturtumps’ from being a child!).
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My first sighting of Fred was on a very frosty Sunday afternoon when I visited his back-yard workshops with Kelvin, my fiancé.
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I lived in Blackpool and it was an impromptu visit after calling in to see my parents who still lived in Bolton. I recall not being that interested in Fred or the visit because of personal problems at the time. All I remember is that Fred talked a lot - it was a really freezing cold day and he seemed impervious to it! |
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| The second time I met him was in springtime and my son Nathan wanted to see the yard after watching Fred on telly, and so we went to gaze through the railings at his home with my parents one Sunday afternoon. | ||||||||
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Fred was there, larger-than-life, holding a metal pail in one hand, waving the other hand frantically around, gesticulating for us all to ‘come down and have a look at me engine, like.’ The yard was a hive of activity with ‘steam up’ and it looked like a veritable Steptoe’s Yard! We did, and I was struck by how patient Fred was with Nathan and his endless questions, how passionate he was about his subject and what a lovely man he seemed to be. We spent about two hours there, listening to his interesting tales, and learning about his steam paraphernalia collected over many years. |
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When I returned to Blackpool , I sent him a little ‘thank you’ note, but did not give out my address. Fred tracked down my mum through his visitor’s book which she had signed, and from there on we became firm friends. A relationship developed after many months, and we became engaged on my 40th birthday. Finally, we were married in Bolton on 26th September 1998, and lived together throughout our married life in the quaint Victorian gatehouse where Fred had lived for over thirty years. | |||||||
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One day, I hope to publish memoirs of my unique time spent with Fred and share a personal view of this remarkable man and his increased public profile through the eyes of his widow. |
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