Arthur Thomas SAXTON

GEDCOM Note

Arthur was born one of 7 children on Saturday 10th December 1904 to Charles & Reta Saxton, Phyllis, Charles, Ida Lillian,Queenie, Harold & James being the other 6 children.

When Arthur was a young lad he was always in trouble, the mainreason was his love of football, quite often late home from school. Heopenly admits that he could have done better at school if he concentrated less onsports.

When Arthur left school he started work at his fathers buildingbusiness, he trained as a carpenter. Later his brothers were to join thefirm.

He met Ivy Ashington when a friend who was going to "ask herout" was to slow and Arthur asked Ivy first. He learned that Ivy had aheart condition and was not expected to have a long life, his family and friendssuggested that he should break off the relationship, however, Arthur was a verydetermined man, instead of breaking with Ivy, he asked her to marry him. (Theywould see their Diamond Wedding Anniversary)

After his fathers death Arthur became a self employed carpenter,he recalled that in the late 1920s he would cycle for hours looking forbuilding sites or ask if anyone knew of any new work where a carpenter wasrequired. He was well known for his workmanship but times were hard and work washard to find.

He called on a builder he knew and asked the question, theanswer that he got back wasn't what he expected. He was told that if he wanted towork he would have to take on the job of supplying and fitting every stick offwood for the new site.

Arthur thought hard about it, he would need to price the timberand costs of engaging other carpenters, he decided to chance it, althoughthis would depend on the price. Arthur worked out that to make a profit and payothers the price for a large semi-detached house would be just over £19/10s/6d.In those days every stick of wood would be cut to make roofs, floors, skirtingand doors, nothing was pre-fabricated and as sites would not haveelectricity all work was manual. The builder gave the job to Arthur.

One day whilst cycling to work through Goodmayes (near Ilford,Essex) Arthur was stopped by a policeman, he had jumped a "red light"something common nowadays, but these were the first traffic lights he hadseen.

During the second world war Arthur was exempt from call up,however, he did his bit by joining the Heavy Rescue, this meant that whenbuildings were bombed the Heavy Rescue would be one of the first on theseen and with their expertise in building they would be the ones whowould co-ordinate the rescue.

Arthur retired early due to ostio-arthritis. He found thatpainting with water colours helped the pain (although he never complained), hewould copy pictures from chocolate boxes, he even copied Constables HayWeine and typically did a very good job of it.