More than 100 scooter and motorbike riders answered a Garstang care home's appeal. And a man left his old primary school £8,000, more than 80 years after a teacher guided him through the long grass.
A Garstang care home's appeal for scooters and motorbikes brought more than 100 riders for one resident's wish, and a South Yorkshire man's GBP 8,000 bequest rebuilt the overgrown quad of the school where a teacher once guided him through the long grass.
Meadow Croft care home in Garstang, Lancashire, asked the public for a favour. A resident there lives with dementia, and staff had learned what he missed: being part of the mod and biking community. The home posted an appeal online and asked people to help fill its car park, so that he could once again be "surrounded by mods, scooters and bikes". 1
On Saturday, more than 100 scooter and motorbike riders answered. Bikers from Lancashire Police came too. 1
You couldn't move for bikes
Jessica Richardson, the home's lifestyle manager, told BBC Radio Lancashire she was "so stunned and overwhelmed" by the response. So many riders came, she said, that "you couldn't move" for bikes. 1
The resident "had the best day", Richardson said, and "couldn't believe everybody turned up for him". 1
She gave the credit away. "Without the response from the community, it wouldn't have been possible," she said. "Seeing him so happy was just amazing. Many tears were shed. It was just a perfect day." 1
Meadow Croft sits on Garstang Bypass Road in the town, and its staff organise the activities that residents ask for. This one arrived on a Saturday afternoon, in a car park full of engines. 1
The long grass, and the boy who looked for rabbits
In the South Yorkshire village of Thurnscoe, John Richardson started at his village primary school at four. What he loved there was looking for rabbits in the fields behind it. The grass stood above his head, so a teacher guided him through it. 2
Richardson left Thurnscoe with his family in 1940, and he stayed a Yorkshireman at heart. He went on to study sociology at Durham University, worked for the Citizens Advice Bureau, and then set up a welfare rights organisation. His daughter Kate Davis said that one walk through the long grass stayed with him for the rest of his life. He died aged 86, and in his will he left £8,000 to the school. 2
"He was apparently quite shy when he was younger, but later in life he could command a room with his humour," Davis said. "He may have become a Sunderland fan, but he supported Yorkshire at cricket all his life." 2
Davis said her father had talked about the school before he died. The teacher's help, she said, was unusual for its time. "Just that thought of somebody helping a little person like that, it wasn't always the case," she said. 2
Kindness remembered, kindness returned
By the time the money arrived the school was called The Hill Primary Academy, and its principal, Kirsten Middleton, had been a pupil there herself. "We were obviously over the moon, but also perplexed as to who this person was," she said. Middleton grew up in the mining community, so she put some feelers out in the village. Nobody knew the name. 2
The £8,000 went into a space the pupils could not use. The walkways around the outside of the quad were overgrown with grass about four feet high, and the ground under them was cracked tarmac that staff judged unsafe. Middleton had it rebuilt with gravel walkways, flower beds, wooden benches and a pond. 2
At the centre stands the school's original bell, on a plinth built from bricks gathered from local pits over the years. A plaque on the brickwork reads: "In memory of John Richardson, former pupil of the Hill, kindness remembered, kindness returned. A legacy for generations." 2
Every summer, the Year 6 pupils who are leaving will ring it. 2
Middleton said the pupils' reaction when they came back and saw the space was "hugely emotional". 2
Richardson's wife Margaret died 18 years ago, and his three children live outside England, so nobody from the family has stood in the finished garden. Davis has seen the pictures, and she said they showed the school her father remembered. "It's still got that heart and is still part of that community and trying to help the underdog, and that's what he stood for all of his life," she said. 2
What stays with me is that in both halves the thing that mattered was small — an afternoon's turnout for one man, a guide through long grass for one boy — and somebody decided each was worth giving back.
References
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