Memoirs of GD Fell

I also tried to get into one of the golf clubs in Scarborough without success. The reason for this was that I didn't have a handicap from my golfing days in Cyprus and the golf clubs in Scarborough worked on a sort of 'catch 22' system. You couldn't become a member unless you had a handicap, and you couldn't get a handicap unless you were a member. However, all was not lost. Brian Robertshaw and myself found out that there was a golf society in a village just outside Scarborough called Cloughton. This society had the use of a nine hole golf course at a hotel in Ravenscar, the only stipulation being a signing in at the hotel. Neither of us were keen on taking part in any of the competitions run by the society so the set up was ideal so far as we were concerned, we just turned up At the Ravenscar hotel, signed in and off we went for a round whenever we felt like it.

At the back end of 1984 the house needed repainting both inside and out and after great deliberation Sheila and I decided that going up ladders was now too hazardous so thought it was a good idea to look for a bungalow for ease of maintenance when I retired. We found a bungalow which was in the process of being built at Osgodby Hill Top, put in a bid for it which was accepted and moved in when the building was completed in May 1985.

As you can imagine, one of the first things we had to do on moving into the property was to plan the garden. We were on a corner site with Osgodby Lane on one side of the bungalow and Filey Road on the other (both main roads). The other two sides adjoined other properties.

Sheila's expertise in gardening came to the fore in the designing of the garden with a pond and rockery prominent. My contribution was to build the pond and they take Sheila to various places where they sold fish, koi carp, goldfish etc to stock the pond, But before we got down to work on the garden we decided that we would have to have a new perimeter fence on the Filey Road/Osgodby Lane sides. The fence in situ was a 'farm like' structure with a privet hedge going through it.