Brian Robinson interviewed by Arlene Ellis 26 November 2018
Richard Clark, who I knew as Dick Clark, lived in the village with his wife called Sadie and they lived in a house on the right-hand side of the Green at the bottom of the Green called Greenside. I met them through my parents because they were very close friends of my parents and they were also involved in the church as well. They both sang in the church choir as far as I know and the church cross, the crucifers cross, is dedicated to Richard, obviously Dick, when he died, I think in 1977. I believe when he was living in the village that he worked for Powergas as a draughtsman and he would do painting as a hobby, but once he retired, he went into painting as a major hobby which he did until his death. He did a lot of paintings in relation to the Lake District. I know he had a love for the Lake District and the Dales and there is some of his paintings which are obviously from the Lake District.
I believe we’ve got a painting at home which is of the church, of Egglescliffe Church. I think we may well have a couple of paintings, or at least one, of one of the Lakes or some part of the Lake District as well. And he was an excellent painter and all his paintings are all as far as I know watercolours. They’re all really good paintings. And I think he would, as I say, start painting as a hobby when he lived in the village and once he retired that would become more and more of a hobby and he would spend a lot of his time doing that. I think he would probably sell some of them, but I know the ones we’ve got he gave us, at least the one of the church, because we’ve got a connection with the church.
My parents had a couple of pictures off him as well. So I think he would probably paint them for me mother, and we’ve got at least one or two of those pictures as well. I think that we may well have a photograph of him on some of our wedding photographs ‘cos the choir was part of our wedding in 1976, and I’m sure that Dick and Sadie were both on that photograph. And then unfortunately when Dick died in 1977 Sadie moved out of the village shortly after that and lived on Orchard Estate until she died, she lived in a bungalow up there. As I say they were obviously well established in the village and well involved in the Church as well.
I know that Sadie, his wife, was involved in the WI and baked a lot of the cakes and stuff with me mother when they used to have the Village Fete in the Old Rectory. I think Richard would still be working then. The Garden Fetes were in the Old Rectory when Leslie Nelson was there but unfortunately Leslie Nelson died in 1975 and as I say Dick Clark died a couple of years after that in 1977. His social life within the village, I’m not really sure about, but he would be a well-respected person within the village at that time. They lived in the village for quite a while as I say in the house at the bottom. It’s still there, it’s the one where the lady sells the jam on the outside on the little shelf on the outside of the house.
I know they had at least a daughter and I think they probably had a son as well but I’m not sure where they are now. [I didn’t know them] particularly well, as they would be older, probably a bit older than I am at the moment.
That’s basically all I know really. He did a lot of paintings in relation to the Lakes and the Lake District because I know he used to go over there quite a bit, whether they had relatives who lived over there I’m not sure, but I know a lot of his painting was to do with the Lake District and the hills etc, so he did do quite a few paintings of that.That’s right, as I say it was 77 when he died so that’s 40 odd years ago, and he was born in 1902 I think, according to the cross, so he’s like a generation, like my parents’ generation