by Neil Baldwin
Denise recalls her mother Iris saying, ‘I just can’t believe our Neil has fooled Maurice.’
Cousin Brenda confirmed that Maurice was a ‘rather stiff’ person who wasn’t too pleased that he had been misled in this way.
It was during the sixties that Neil started to turn his childhood interest in circuses into an adult reality. Norman Barrett MBE is one of the circus community’s most famous members, a ringmaster and former bareback rider who is also famous for his act with trained budgies. Norman recalls:
I first got to know Neil in the 1960s. He came to visit my mother, who invited him for a cup of tea and gave him some circus programmes. And he became a regular visitor after that. On one occasion he came with a dog collar and a Bible. He came to see us at the Tower Circus in Blackpool, and also to Zippos in Stoke and down to shows in London.
He took my retired budgies and I still give him budgies because he takes great care of them.
He’s a circus lover; he visits circuses all over the country, and indeed the world. He goes to the annual get-together of the circus community and the circus fans’ association. He still phones me regularly.
Phillip Gandey of Gandey’s Circus says, ‘Neil used to visit my father’s circus as a young man and always visited my mum and dad. We see him at family funerals and know him as a friend. He is part of the wider circus family.’
Andrew Edwards is a local funeral director with strong connections to Stoke City. He recalls:
A few years ago, we did the funeral of Mary Gandey, who was prominent in the circus community. Mourners came from all over the country. I was very surprised to see Nello there, but I shouldn’t have been, because it was obvious he’s a friend of the family and knew loads of people from the circus families very well.
NEIL
Norman and Phillip are very good friends of mine. Norman is one of the most famous circus people and has one of the best acts in the country. I have been pleased to look after his retired budgies. I have known Phillip’s family ever since I was young, and in 1974 I performed in a show of theirs at Stoke Polytechnic as a clown. All the Gandey family are good friends of mine. I went to Mary’s funeral at Brereton. That was sad. It was organised by Andrew Edwards, who is a big Stoke City fan. He is a nice man who is very good at running funerals.
I see a lot of my old circus friends at the annual national circus reunion. A circus is the most exciting form of entertainment you can have. I love making people laugh.
CHAPTER THREE
NEIL IN THE SEVENTIES: POLITICS, FOOTBALL AND THE BOAT RACE
NEIL
I’ve always been a big Labour Party supporter, so I was very pleased when, in 1971, my friend Malcolm Clarke was elected to Newcastle Borough Council as Labour councillor for May Bank, and even more pleased when they made him mayor three years later, on 1 April 1974. He was only twenty-seven. That’s very young to be mayor. I think he was the youngest mayor Newcastle has ever had.
I was the first person to ride in the mayor’s car that year, which was marvellous. I was really pleased that Malcolm and his wife Lesley became mayor and mayoress. They were very good at it, and I went to their Mayor’s and Mayoress’s Balls. Lots of mayors and lord mayors have been very good friends of mine. I think Malcolm knows by now that, if I say I know someone famous, I do.
Of course, he nearly lost it again the day after he got it, due to some sort of carry-on. I went to the public gallery to cheer him on.
MALCOLM
It’s a long story but, having been elected mayor on 1 April, due to reorganisation I had to resign on 2 April and they had to run the election again on 3 April. So my first term of office lasted just one day, All Fools’ Day, which somehow seemed appropriate.
Bizarrely, and somewhat embarrassingly, the only civic engagement on that day was the university’s annual dinner for its friends and neighbours, so I returned to where I worked for that, knowing that it might need only one comrade to miss a bus to the meeting on 3 April for it to be my one and only civic engagement. Neil, of course, turned up at the dinner.
The next day, with Neil watching anxiously from the public gallery, on 3 April I was elected for my second term of office. After the meeting, we had to adjourn to the Clayton Lodge hotel for a civic reception. This involved a journey in the mayor’s Daimler.
Neil came up to me outside. ‘Can I have ride in the mayor’s car?’
‘Of course, Neil.’
I was immediately made aware that this course of action wasn’t recommended by the Mayor’s Sergeant. It was the first, but certainly not the last, decision about how I conducted myself as mayor that wasn’t in accord with the traditional way of doing things. One of these was giving hitchhiking students a lift in the mayor’s car up Keele bank when I was returning to work after an engagement.
So, anyway, Neil climbed into the car, and, as we glided away, he began to give a royal wave through the window to bemused bystanders and pedestrians.
Neil was never shy about giving me advice on what the council should be doing.
As mayor, I went to a function at which some of the Stoke City players were present, and had a chat with the winger Terry Conroy. The conversation turned to Neil and I remarked, ‘I sometimes wondered whether Neil really knew the Stoke City players quite as well as he said he did.’
‘That’s funny,’ Terry replied, ‘because we were doubtful whether he really knew the Mayor of Newcastle.’
NEIL
As well as helping Malcolm with his mayoral duties, I carried on going to Keele, and at the start of the seventies I got to know some very nice people there who were in the Christian Union. There was Jonathan Gledhill, who’s a very nice man and is the Bishop of Lichfield, but announced in March 2015 that he would retire the following September; and there were Tony Andrews, Vic Trigg and Tony Bartlett, and they’re all still very good friends of mine.
MALCOLM
Tony Andrews remembers:
After a while, Neil began sleeping on my floor every weekend. I would have what I called the Neil Baldwin kit in the corner. Jonathan Gledhill was a year above me and also lived in my block. Vic Trigg and Tony Bartlett came later. We looked after Neil and kept an eye on him. His mother, Mary, used to take us for an occasional meal as a reward.
Vic Trigg recalls his first meeting with Neil a few days after arriving in Keele in 1972:
I was offered a coffee by a final-year student, Tony Andrews, who lived on my corridor, and amongst the eight or so people already in Tony’s room was a slightly dishevelled and portly figure sitting on the edge of the desk looking benevolently down on the students who were sitting on the bed, chairs and floor. I was introduced to the twenty-six-year-old Neil, but no explanation as to his reason for being there was given, and I took him for some sort of social worker or perhaps a chaplaincy assistant.
Over the next few weeks I noticed that Neil’s mum drove him up to Keele every Friday night with a sleeping bag and camp bed and he then slept on Tony’s floor for two nights and was collected by his mum on Sunday evenings. Tony was a little vague as to Neil’s exact role beyond what I picked up myself, that he spent his weekends talking to students, drinking coffee and consuming any food that was offered. He also went to every Stoke City home match and mixed with the university staff and chaplains. I discovered that Neil had a job as a labourer in Woods Pottery in Burslem during the week and that he had already been coming up to Keele for more than a decade. He was also very interested in anything to do with the Church of England and its clergy, circuses and the university boat race, exclusively relating to the Cambridge crew.
As I had a car, I often provided a taxi service to Neil and that has been continuing ever since.
Neil’s dad died during the first term I was at Keele. Tony Andrews was a big support for his mum at this time as she learned how to pay bills, complete forms, get the car serviced, that sort of thing, and it was at this time that I first got to know Mary.
NEIL
My dad died from gall-bla
dder cancer. The doctor told us he wouldn’t last until Christmas, and he didn’t. It upset me because he was in a lot of pain and there was nothing I could do about it. Vic and the two Tonys were very good friends to me and Mum at that time and have been ever since.
They are all very good friends of mine. I’ve known Bishop Jonathan since he was a lad. I always thought he would become a bishop, and he’s a very good one. He took the service of thanksgiving for my fifty years at Keele in 2010.
Tony Andrews is another very good friend. I used to sleep on his floor, and his cups of coffee were very good. He has often put me up when I visit London. A few years ago he found a very good German hotel for me in Putney, where I stay when I go down for the Boat Race. They like me there, and I like them. They do very good breakfasts.
Tony Bartlett and his wife, Irene, invite me to Christmas Day lunch every year. We always watch the Queen’s message. Vic and Helen have been very good to me. Before she died, my mum asked them to look after my money, which they do. My mum used to have her caravan in their garden at Market Drayton. Tony and Vic built the aviary for my birds in the flat.
MALCOLM
Tony Bartlett remembers:
Vic was the first person I met in Horwood B block in 1972 and we’ve been mates ever since. I went to Keele as a Roman Catholic, Vic was Pentecostal and he soon introduced me to Neil, who was involved with the church.
Vic had a car and used to give Neil lifts, so we often saw Neil and his mum Mary during my early years at Keele. Mary was very accommodating. She was also astute, calm and clear. She would be very proud, but slightly worried, by everything which is going on for Neil now. She lived her faith and did things for people.
After graduating I stayed on as a resident tutor in a block at Keele. Mary used to call in to see me. She took us out for trips. But her driving was pretty poor. I always felt closer to heaven when being a passenger with Mary driving.
Mary’s poor driving was legendary. Tony wasn’t the only one to have his nerves tested. We have already heard young Dan’s memory of it on the trips to the safari park. Vic says, ‘Mary was a terrible driver. She once knocked a paper-boy off his bike, burned out clutches regularly and drove very slowly at the head of queues.’
Today, Vic works as a part-time driving instructor. Tony Bartlett muses, ‘I’ve often wondered whether Vic’s decision to train to become a driving instructor was motivated by his memory of Mary’s driving.’
These friends have remained in contact with Neil ever since and have helped him on many occasions. Vic says:
After Tony Andrews graduated I took on the role of host to Neil each weekend and, unless there was a spare room somewhere, Neil slept on my floor during term time on most weekends for the next three years.
One year Mary and Neil had a holiday at my parents’ home on the south coast, and my parents stayed with Mary in her prefab in Chesterton when they came to my graduation in 1976.
Tony Bartlett’s parents also hosted a holiday for Neil and Mary: ‘In 1976–7 Neil and Mary came up to Thornaby-on-Tees and stayed with my mum and dad. They visited places like Whitby.’
But not everything they did gained Neil’s support. Tony recalls:
Neil didn’t approve of myself, Roger Bachelor and John Hughes climbing the chapel one year to put a ‘Jesus Saves’ sign on the roof. Vic remained at the bottom pretending to be drunk. Neil really didn’t like the idea of us doing something stupid – no doubt this fitted in with his role as Rag Safety Officer.
Bishop Jonathan Gledhill says:
My first memory of Neil is of him organising a football match at Keele between his football team and the Christian Union. He has kept in touch ever since those days. He rings me about once a year, usually either on my birthday or at Christmas and is always very courteous. He always has a view on who’s likely to get which job when in the Church, and, to my amazement and occasional annoyance, he’s very often right. I think he keeps up to date by ringing lots of people. I’ve often seen him in his morning suit in St Paul’s cathedral or just sitting at the back in the service for the ordination of a new vicar at a parish. It would be a great pity if the churches didn’t want to embrace eccentrics like Neil.
NEIL
I always knew Jonathan would make bishop one day. I know most of the bishops and I get them all to sign the order of service when I go a bishop’s consecration.
In 1973, my mum and I took a holiday on the south coast with Vic and his parents. On the way down we stopped in Oxford and I went into a theological college to talk about training for the ministry. I always wanted to be a vicar and went to talk to them about it, but it came to nothing.
Then on the way back we stopped in Oxford again and I saw the Duke of Edinburgh. I think he was doing something for his Awards. I said to Mum, ‘I must go over and speak to him.’ She said, ‘Don’t, Neil, because of all this trouble with the IRA.’ But it’s not every day a member of the royal family has a chance to speak to me, so I crossed the road to let him have a word with me. We talked about world problems. He was very pleased to listen to my advice. He was a very nice man.
About that time I managed to have a talk with Harold Wilson too, when he was prime minister. We were in London for the Rag and went to Downing Street. In those days there wasn’t a fence across the end of the road, like there is now, and you could walk right down it, so we did. I said I wanted to sell a Rag magazine to the Prime Minister. They let me knock on the door and I saw Harold Wilson, who bought a magazine.
I was quite lucky he was in. He was a very nice man. I told him that it was good that a Labour man is Prime Minister, and gave him some advice about what to do. I don’t think they would let even me do that these days. Did you know his wife’s name was Mary Baldwin before she married him, the same as my mum’s? All the Baldwins are good people.
MALCOLM
Neil also continued his friendship with campus families and their children. Godfrey Jordan, whose father was a maths lecturer, and Chris Tough, son of the deputy registrar, remember the football games. Godfrey says:
Chris and I have memories from the early to mid-seventies, when we were eleven to fourteen years old. We and our pals were the ‘campus kids’, sons and daughters of the academic and administrative staff and residents on Keele campus. Our parents had fought hard with the Keele authorities to get us a space to play football and cricket on what became known as the ‘top field’ near the houses on the campus where we lived.
We were kids rather than the young adults involved in Neil Baldwin FC. The main memory is the unexpected arrival of Neil at our football games on the top field, where he would turn up with several others and cheerfully join in our game. I never worked out quite why a group of men dressed in Stoke City shirts would be wandering around Keele looking for a game. Mystifyingly they turned up from the Newcastle side of the top field, not the university side. Presumably, they’d walked up from the Westlands or Silverdale.
There was a seriousness and intensity about the game when he joined. Names of current Stoke players were assigned to each of us – you had no choice: Neil would simply allocate a name – and the scoring of a goal was followed with handshakes all round. I recall Neil’s intense level of encouragement and shouting as we were playing. I also vaguely remember them disappearing almost as abruptly as they arrived and wondering where on earth they came from and where they were going.
The other memory is of course his semi-permanent presence on the campus. Frequently wearing a long university scarf, he was ubiquitous and would shout a cheery hello – sometimes disconcertingly cheerful.
Peter Whieldon was the son of Harold and Margaret Whieldon, caretakers in Horwood Hall. Harold was also a church warden at St John’s Church in Keele village. Harold and Margaret were much-loved figures among the students.
Peter recalls:
I always thought Neil was a student. We used to play football on Horwood Green until Doc Henderson, the warden, chased us off, and when this happened I have vivid recollection
s of Neil’s back disappearing into ‘A’ block.
Sometimes he used to come into our bungalow, where my mum would feed him, as she did everybody.
During the Rag I was sometimes put in the lead vehicle and Neil used to run around all over the place as the safety officer.
Occasionally he used to do lay reading in the village church for Harold. I can still remember Neil’s first reading in the early seventies. He was wearing a blue lay-reader’s vestment.
NEIL
I have taught a lot of the campus children how to play football. I’m a very good coach. They have to learn that you don’t win football matches if you don’t score goals. This is what I tell the NBFC players.
I am always willing to preach or read at other churches, and I’m a very good lay reader. Harold Whieldon was a very good friend of mine and a keen Christian. He looked after St John’s for many years. I was sad when his wife Margaret died of cancer in 1982. She was a lovely lady who looked after me and the students very well. There is a plaque in her memory in the row of trees on the university land right opposite the church.
Of course, I didn’t neglect the Neil Baldwin Football Club. It went from strength to strength in the seventies.
MALCOLM
Linden West, now a professor at Christchurch University, Kent, played in the NBFC and remembers an away game at Oxford University in the early 1970s:
We all went down on the coach to Oxford and we were made very welcome with a very posh lunch. When the match started it soon became apparent that the teams were hopelessly unbalanced and they were far better than us. I think the match might actually have been against the Oxford University Football Club first team and they may have thought they were playing the Keele first team. I think we were about five goals down in the first twenty minutes.