5 things about John

Five things about John Bicknell

1. I AM A CIDER DRINKER! (Apologies to The Worzels)
Well not really, but I am Devonshire born and therefore a West Country yokel. So how come I have a broad Lancashire (Chorley) accent?
I was born in a town called Crediton about 10 miles west of Exeter. My mother was a Chorley lass who left the comfort of working in the wages office at the Ordnance factory at Chorley to join the Womens’ Land Army during the war and was allocated to a large farm in a small hamlet called Upton Hellions outside Crediton.
		My father was an only child born and raised on the adjacent small farm called Hellions Farm. They had three children between September 1947 and June 1950 when I was born and my mother, without any family support, found it extremely difficult to look after us all so they decided to move back to Chorley in 1953 where my mother had three sisters and a brother as well as her parents to help her.

2. I SPEND MOST OF THE SUMMER ON MY CANAL BOAT WITH MY WIFE JENNIFER
	We have a 57-foot narrow boat called “Owd Chorleian” which is based at Scarisbrick Marina between Ormskirk and Southport over the winter.

The name Owd Chorleian came about when we bought the boat as my wife is Chorley born and bred and people from Chorley are known as Chorleians and pupils who attended my secondary school are known as Old Chorleians so we added a bit of Lancashire dialect to get the name.

3. I HAVE FLOWN ON CONCORDE

		For our silver wedding anniversary in 1998 we booked a trip to fly to Venice by Concorde and return on the Orient Express.
		Jennifer does not like flying but she thought Heathrow to Venice would be OK as it would be a short hop on Concorde. When the tickets arrived, the flight was scheduled for 3½ hours. When she contacted the travel company she was told that is was because we would fly halfway across the Atlantic before turning and landing in Venice!

4. I AM A KEEN RAILWAY MODELLER

I have an extensive model railway under construction in my loft which has been on the go since 1980 but since becoming involved with Freemasonry progress has been extremely slow and I have not been able to touch it for the last 15 years or so.

5. I WAS LUCKY TO RETIRE BEFORE MY 48th BIRTHDAY

I became an apprentice for the Post Office Telephones in 1966 when I left school and I retired on the 30th April 1998, just 2 months before my 48th birthday.
This was a very lucky break as BT (as it became known at privatisation) was looking to reduce senior managers at the time and my circumstances allowed me to volunteer for redundancy as we had no children who would have needed support through university.
I am looking forward to the date in September 2028 when I will have been drawing my pension longer than I paid into it!

John Bicknell P.G.J.O., A.Prov.G.M.