Fred Thomas Crook

Tribute written by Joan West (granddaughter in law)

FRED CROOK'S BACKGROUND

Fred Crook was born in 1880 in Long Crendon.   He came to live with his daughter Hilda, and her husband, (click Dick & Hilda West) at Stocken Farm, Lacey Green in 1940 after his second wife died.   He had retired from his job in London, in poor health ten years earlier, and taken a small dairy farm at Wheeler End.   His wife was good with money, buying property.  He employed a man and sold the milk round Wheeler End.   He would stretch the milk to make it cover the round.   He gambled away any money he made.   He would agree to go on holiday provided his wife took him near Goodwood or Cheltenham for race meetings.   When she died she left a number of terraced properties all with sitting tenants to Dick West, not to Fred, knowing he would gamble them away, but Fred to have any income from them in his lifetime.  This did not come to a great deal as repairs often outweighed the rents.

On her deathbed she begged Hilda not to take in her father. Feeling she had to, because it was thought he was in failing health, Hilda and Dick took him in. He was then in his 60's and lived to be nearly 96!!!

"GRANDAD". Fred Crook came to be commonly known as “Grandad”, being John West's grandfather. (click John & Joan West for more about John)  Grandad was a great character, people liked him, even admired him, but great characters are not always easy to live with! This man, "dying" in 1940, lived for another 36 years at Stocken Farm.   However he always pulled his weight.

GREW & PREPARED VEG. Grandad was not an idle man. He grew and prepared all the vegetables for the house.   With economy in mind these had usually been left to grow past their prime and beans and peas would be like bullets and runner beans stringy. But it was a job to be done every day and one ticked off Hilda's list. The family by now increased by the arrival of Harry Floyd who lodged with them until 1981 when Dick remarried following Hilda’s death.   There were also families billeted there from Bomber Command during the war.

BUTTERED UP EGG CUSTOMERS. The farm sold eggs which Grandad would serve.   He always "buttered up" the lady customers, sometimes getting himself into difficulties after calling more than one "his favourite customer"

TARRED THE BARNS. He annually tarred the black timber barns. This was a horrible job. One to do in hot weather when the wood grain was open and receptive and the tar runny. A long brush was needed to reach the higher areas and the tar would run down onto hands, arms and clothes.

HE KEPT A FEW TURKEYS AND GEESE. These wandered free and had to be brought back off the Main Road from time to time. Luckily there was little traffic into the 1950s. Years later the farm became well known for its Christmas turkeys and cockerals, but these were kept penned.

BUTTERED BREAD FOR TEA. He also buttered the bread for tea.   This went onto the plate facing where he sat at the round table.   The bread on the far side of the plate would be spread with margarine.

DOG RACING. In later years, once a week he went to Park Royal Dog Racing.  He would say to Dick, "I have a lift to Wycombe Station, but would you pick me up coming back?" then he would say to John, " I have someone to get me home, but would you take me to Wycombe Station?". Just a little example, he could be very devious. He hated you spending money.  “A waste” unless you lost it on a bet – that was “Just bad luck”

1974 Village Hall 50th celebration. Fred Thomas Crook cut the cake.

Grandad Cut the Cake at the Village Hall 50th celebration in 1974. He was asked because at 94 he was thought to be the oldest person in the village. However he did not belong to any village organisations - and certainly not The 81st Club - 'all those old people'.

Fred's Life Story. Fred Crook was born in 1881 in Long Crendon. On leaving school he was apprenticed to a grocer in Oxford, where he was happy to give the girls a ride when out delivering the goods. He found ways to handle the produce to make life easier, such as washing the currants and sultanas before weighing them and putting them in cone shaped packs which he could 'make a treat'. Washing them made them less sticky and easier to separate, for they came compressed in heavy boxes. Unfortunately in this wet conditon the fruit would soon go mouldy. This alone sums up his character. Such aspects did not change all his long life, bending the edges of life if it made things easier.

He went to work in London, eventually becoming the sales manager of the V.V. Bread Company with 48 vans in his charge.

Fred married a lovely girl by whom he had a daughter Hilda Elsie. Sadly his wife died of cancer when Hilda was only ten.

The boss of the V.V.Bread Company was a remarkabe woman running the big bakery business. She was skillful at dealing in property - bught a whole row of houses at one time. She had property in Canada, including a big department store. She married a Red Indian. Sadly in his photograph he wears western clothers. We don't know when he died. We do know that Fred Crook did marry his boss, now a widow.

In 1921 with Fred in poor health and thought likely to die Fred and Caroline bought Wheeler End Farm at the peak price which had collapsed by the end of the year.

He employed one man. It was said that when delivering his milk round he made it go further by watering it down! This coud well have been so!

in 1945 his wife died. He had proved to be a difficult man over the years. He did aways work but over the years he had developed a love of horse racing and loved to gamble. His wife with her knack of making money was a practical woman. If she wanted to go on holiday she would pay, going say, to Goodwood for the 'Glorious Goodwood' week. Any holiday had to be near a race meeting.

Young Hilda from the pretty clothes in which her mother had dressed her was put into much more hard-wearing footwear and clothes, but she had enormous spirit which she never lost. She went to work at the big department store 'Gorenges'in London. She loved a trip to London right through her life. She had to return to Wheeler End, having gone down with rheumatic fever., which left her with a weak heart, which she defied until her death aged 67.

When Carrie died she left the few properties that remained to Dick, Hilda's husband, with Fred to have the income from them. And she told Hilda that on no account should she have her father to live with them. But Fred reckoned he was dying, and so Hilda and Dick took him in and he went to live at Stocken Farm (click Dick & Hilda West). He lived another 36 years.