Martin

Martin handles some tooling

Martin, our next door neighbour, helps me install a water butt which I could not have done without his help. We have a good time doing it, too. 

Martin knows a bit about everything on our block which makes sense as he grew up in the house is lives in today (Martin's mother, Kitty Godfrey, won Wimbledon a bunch of times in the 1920s).  I learn, for instance, that our property once owned by a bank manager.  And number 37 down the block owned by the industrialist owner of the stag brewery. 

Martin tells me about the local homes bombed during the Second World War. There were several direct hits (he was evacuated to Surrey). When Madeleine in Year 3 or 4, he told her about the experience for a class project.

Martin an electrical engineer who remains busy. He is currently installing the lighting system on London's Crossrail, a 73 mile railway line under construction for 2018 with a new east-west route across Greater London. His garage stuffed with every tool imaginable.