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FRED RADLEY
Born:
Dulverton,
Somerset, 1929
Lived: Dulverton
Recording made: 2001
Length of recording:
2 hrs 22 mins
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Fred Radley always wanted to be a builder. His father was a stonemason, his uncle a bricklayer. His uncle bred greyhounds and it was Fred's job to exercise them before he went to school. As he did so he would meet men on their way to work, West of England sacks round their shoulders to keep out the rain, and walk along with them, listening while they told him the best way to lay a hedge.
He grew vegetables, selling them in Dulverton, and helped with the pigs and poultry. In the evenings they would listen to the wireless while his dad told him how to slate a roof. On Saturday afternoons he would help him, climbing up without a tie because he was small and light.
When he left school he worked with his father and then, after national service, for another local firm. In 1962 he and a friend went into partnership, forming Radley and Chanters. It is Radley and Son now.