8th November 2009
Hello David
I have found the website for Wheatley Hill and accessed the information.
The part of greatest interest was the photographs and whilst many of them refer to times after our family had left the village one was of very great interest.
The picture of the Scouts grouped with the cup (page 5).
I was 6 at the time the photograph was taken. We lived at 'Highbury' on the Wingate Lane (Durham Road) and dad (Jack Daykin) worked at Deaf Hill. Later, Arthur served his apprenticeship as an electrician at the same pit.
Second row 4th from left is Arthur Daykin - my eldest brother. He married Veda McCartney (Tom's sister) and Harold Lang married Jean McCartney the youngest. Mrs McCartney had the shop on the Front Street.
When the WW2 started those who were not employed in the mines joined the forces (and some wwere released from mining before the Government stopped it) At that time that Arthur became scout leader. I had joined the cubs by then and remember being in the Gang Show (which we put on at the Welfare Hall?) playing the part of the paper boy.
Dad had to leave the mine in late 1941(ill health after a gas seepage) and we moved to Bedford in late 1942. Arthur was an electrician at Deaf Hill and had to stay because he was in a reserved occupation...but for some reason he was transferred to Framwellgate Moor.
When he was released from the mines he moved to Bedford to be with the rest of us. Although Veda had trained as a midwife (in Newcastle) they were married in 1947 and their only son Anthony was born in Bedford, June 49. Veda was a Sister at the Bedford North Wing Hospital. They bought their own house off the Kempston Road in 1950 just after Tony was born.
After several jobs Arthur became an electrical design draughtsman at the Irganic Electrical Compamy in Bedford which specialised in control solutions for industry. They decided to emigrate to Canada in 1954.
They lived in London, Ontario for some time but his work expertise took them to Livonia, Michigan because he was contracting his skills to The Ford Motor Company in Detroit. They bought a house in Livonia and whilst bringing up Tony Veda returned to nursing. Arthur started the DAYKIN Electrical Company in Livonia which retained that name until recently when it was taken over/merged. He died as a result of an automobile accident (May 1968).
Antony is now Chief of Police at the University of Arizona in Tucson.Veda moved to Phoenix Arizona after Arthur died but moved to Tucson on Tony's request so that they could look after her because her health was failing. Sadly Veda died earlier this year.
Tony's son Scot is/was a USAAF pilot.
Many of the names bring back memories. Perhaps some are still alive and remember us during the 9 years we lived in Wheatley Hill.
Hope this is of interest.
Sincerely
Frank Daykin
9th November 2009
Quite uncanny that you trained as an electrician in the pit at Thornley. Perhaps Arthur took that up because Ernest Sedgewick (father's brother in law) lived next door to us and he was the chief electrician at Deaf Hill (not what you know!!!).
By the time Arthur left for Canada he had worked on the wiring of vast panels for ship controls and had started to get to grips with transistorisation and I'm sure that played a great part in his work in the States. He was very methodical and Ford wanted him because when he did a job for them it worked first time and continued to do so.
Sadly, those are the only photographs I have of him. Perhaps Tony has more and I will ask him.
I was 2+ when we moved to Wheatley Hill and started at the Infant School when I was 5. I went to the Junior School with Alan Blacklock (Bullock?) who later became Head of the School at a time when I was working as an educational representative so we met up again.
I failed the 11+ so did not follow my two brothers to A J Dawson Wellfield but went to the Secondary school on the Front Street where the teacher in charge of our class was Mrs Hawksey. Can't remember if Tommy Arnold was still Headmaster at that time but he did live in the detached house on the bend of Durham Road (Wingate Lane and Cemetery Road)
I will have to look at the manes on the site again to see if there are any which relate to my time there. Some of the ones in the scout photograph were good friends of Arthur at were at the house many times.
I will contact you again when I have more to contribute.
Regards
Frank
15th November 2009
I have only sent 2 one of the wedding and one of Arthur later in life and when I check the one you say you got first it shows that they were attached. If you don't have those 2 then let me know and I will send them again (now I have found out how!). If and when I get more from Tony then I will let you have them.
Mainly I wanted people to know about Arthur because there are probably still some around who might remember him. Some of his friends - Bill English and george Atkinson lost in WW2 but others now scattered. He was involved in so many things and although I have not found any link to the Wheatley Hill Band he had certainly learned to play the cornet before he came to Bedford (brother John had learned to play the trombone). Although he ahd matriculated from AJD he was still studying and would mcome from the pit - eat - change and then run down to catch the G & B bus into Durham to attend evening class. (he would give me sixpence for cleaning his shoes before he went).
As I said I was at the Secondary School on the Front Street...but only for something like 6 months. With a birthday in June then I was not quite 11 when I took the 11+ and did not get to Wellfield. At the Christmas of 1943 we moved to Bedford. Because I was just 11½ I was placed into a JUNIOR School to allow me to 'adjust' to the change in schooling systems. I must have been fairly bright because both the class teacher Mr Greaves and the Head (can't remember) thought I should be entered as a late developer for the 11+ and I passed and went to one of the last Central Schools where I followed the Technical side excelling in Woodwork and Technical Drawing. When I left after School Certificate I' hopped over the wall' to the Bedford Modern School to do the new 'A' Levels. After National Service in the RAF I went to Loughborough Training College for 3 years and got a teaching certificate and Diploma as a craft teacher but I spent just 2½ years in secondary teaching before being lured by the greater rewards of selling. (£300 rise in the first year...1959...and that was a lot of money in those days) It took me some years to gravitate to the Educational side and then I spent 29 years in various capacities from representative to Area Manager to Sales Manager and was employed by some very large companies.
I have stuck with the craft until a few years ago and have a drawing board beside me even now. Often wonder what it would have been like to have a CAD programme on the computer because it certainly makes short work of the different views which each tool so long the 'old' way...but then if you don't have the basics then you really cannot understand the new way.(I have tried the simpler ones which allow house planning and views but they are not really the proper thing used in industry).Arthur and Veda did offer to 'house me' for 3 months to see if I could make it better in Canada but we were expecting our first and I did not want to leave my wife alone at such a time so perhaps I missed out. Who knows...but I haven't done too badly here and the rise in status brought us to Harrogate and we have been here for over 30 years.
I have not been driving for over 12 years now after a slight stroke took away sight to the right so I have not been back 'home' for a long time...even though I was only there for 9 years they were the times before the war and then the beginning and the fact that we were not affected by any enemy action (although Sunderland and Hartlepool showed red in the sky many nights) and the fields and the quarries were our gangland... and there were the footings of the houses they had started to build on what is now the Johnson Estate (after cousin Tom? who lived on our part of Wingate Lane and then moved to the side towards Wingate. He was the Butcher at Fletcher's? or did that become Eastman's?) where we killed many a German and the Indians didn't fare much better. Rolling paste eggs down the banks behind Wingate Lane; picking wild strawberies and blackberries; building camps in the hedges; stealing turnips from Hopper's fields and eating them raw; playing in the 'hilly howley' at the corner of Wingate Lane and Cemetry Road with friends like Noel Gordon; the Charlton boys; Deryck Orde; Donald Hateley(?) (next door down to us) and others whom I do not recall. Childhood should always be so full of happy days.
Regards
Frank