Pub Portrait - The Lengthsman

Regular followers of this journal will know that the Friday night trip to the pub is part of the heartbeat to my week.

There's around 10 of us, 5 old uns, 5 young uns. In the main we've been going to the pub for 35 years as 10 and nearly 50 years if you're one of the old uns.

This is Derrick, an old un.

Derrick
Jester
DJ
and now, Whitworth's Lengthsman.

Only through twitter do I know what a Lengthsman is as I follow a guy called Archie who is a Lengthsman in the Lake District.

An ex teacher, a retiring gardener, and in his youth a joiner at Turner Brothers, Jester is now fixing benches, sorting hanging baskets, signs, cleaning manholes, basically pottering about Whitworth making it look a little better.

He's also been funny all my life, and is slowly turning into his dad Ellis, who was the man who had an impact on us all. He was the man who ran the youth groups where we all met. One of those people in the middle of everything.

A tremendous sportsman who played both football and cricket to very good standard. Paid at times. He famously never missed a penalty and never dropped a catch, according to...Derrick.

I'll capture the other 9, one by one, I'm not a great one for portraits so need the practice.