Local Hero Dies
Following Shy's post about strange people in his adopted home town I felt it was only right and proper that I should comment on the death of a local legend in the town I have worked in since 1983. There's a newspaper report about the death of Catweazle here complete with a photograph of the man himself taken outside the office I worked in between 1983 and 1997.
Roy died two weeks ago. His funeral was attended by over six hundred people, which is pretty good considering the town's population is only 14,000. The funeral procession around the town was something that brought a smile to most people's face because it followed the route that Catweazle would take at least half a dozen times a day on his bike as he cycled around town between making bets at Corals. I can't begin to calculate how many times over the past twenty five years I have looked up from my desk and seen him passing by on his bike, whether at my old office or the 'new' one since 2001.
He had been ill for a while and before Christmas when a rumour spread around town that he had died his favourite bookmaker placed a poster in its main window stating simply "Catweazle Lives." To begin with most people thought it was a simple tribute to him but it then emerged that he wasn't dead and this was simply the modern equivalent of the old town cryer announcing some good news.
Ringwood holds a carnival every year, has done for ever to be honest, and one year one of the floats played its own homage to a true character when half a dozen men dressed as Catweazle and stood on one of the floats complete with replicas of his trademark bicycle. When he saw the float he jumped up onto it and began his funny trademark little dance. I think that he'll be missed by thousands of school children who've grown up used to the sound of him cycling down the street going "Quack, quack, " at the small kids or asking the teenage girls if he could have one of their chips.
In a more cycnical, less enlightened, society he might have been arrested and found his name on a sex offenders register for harrassment, fortunately everybody took him in good fun.
3 comments:
I suspect most places have a local character like you suggest. As for the TV character of the same name...fantastic.
When we used to go to Bournemouth there was a person similar to who you suggest. Every year(whatever time it was)there was a shelter on the cliffs, where you could sit and look out to sea(in quite a exclusive area)where the really expensive large hotels are.
It was near some public toilets so he had all that he needed. The climate being mild most of the time.
He was pretty scruffy but had his few belongings and a bike.
He was there for years and years.
I cannot remember whether he disappeared before we no longer visited the resort. But now, I suspect he's probably passed away it's such a long time ago.
If you know the area I think it was close to where Jimmy Saville had his apartment. And still has.
When I started working in accountancy (1977) there was a character similar to the one you describe whose name was Tom Shearing. He died in the early eighties.
Incidentally the Hermit of Swanage died at the end of last year, he lived in a 'house' built from driftwood and had only been out of his house once in thirty odd years when he had to go to hospital because of pneumonia.
I used to see Jimmy Saville quite a lot when I was working in Bournemouth, he owned a nightclub in the road opposite and you would see him on his bike.
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