Career History

My name is Adrian, I was born and brought up in Elland, West Yorkshire. The schools that I attended were Cross Lane Primary, South End Boys' School and Brooksbank School. I am married to Beryl with two grown up children - Paul and Andrea. I left school in 1961 aged 15 and was employed as an Apprentice Electrical Fitter at Elland Power Station. I subsequently was employed as an Instrument Mechanic, Control Engineer and Assistant Electrical Maintenance Engineer at the same location. I am now semi-retired, I deliver meals-on-wheels two days a week. I now live in a village called Monkton on the Isle of Thanet. I moved here in 1991 to work at Richborough Power Station near Sandwich when Elland Power Station closed down. When Richborough subsequently closed I attended Canterbury Christ Church College where I earned a 2:1 BA(Hons) degree in Music and I.T. This facilitated my career move as a Computer programmer.

Interests

My main interest is Freemasonry. I am a member of a number of different orders in Freemasonry, being the organist in most of them. I'm not an organist, I learnt to play the piano when young, but I can get by. My craft Lodge is Bradstow Lodge in Broadstairs. I'm also a member of Bradstow Chapter and St. Peter in Thanet Lodge of Mark Master Masons which also meet in Broadstairs. I am a member of Thanet Lodge of Royal Ark Mariners which meet in Margate.

I like to cycle, but sadly I do not cycle as often as I would like. In 2006, I, along with three others, cycled from Land's End to John-0'Groats. It took us eleven days and covered 946 miles. We were fortunate to have Graham as our support person. I do like walking and in 2008, David from Peterborough, Paul and myself climbed Snowdon in aid of the Marie Curie Cancer Care charity.

Tyke Trips

Since 2009, a group of us, who mainly attended Brooksbank School in Elland, have been taking part in an annual 'blokes' get-away, known as Tyke Trips or Tykes on Tour. In 2009 there were only three of us who made the journey to Stornoway on the Isle of Lewis, whereas this year there will be six of us going to the Isle of Man (2026). To see where we have been over the last number of years, please use the above link and visit the TykeTrips website.

A History of Elland

Many years ago, while I was at Huddersfield Technical College, studying for an ONC in Mechanical Engineering, I along with three others wrote a History of Elland which I am slowly converting for reading on the internet. It may seem an odd thing to do on an engineering course, but one of the subjects was General Studies and the four of us got together to produce this document.