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Len
Tresidder was born in Four Lanes but moved to Ponsanooth as a youngster,
where he has lived for 82 years.
He
attended the old St Gluvias school at the top of the village where
the head-teacher was a kindly man called Mr Richards.
"He
was a very honest man," remembers Len. "He did not believe
in using the cane, more often than not his word was enough to make
us all behave."
After
leaving school Len joined the village undertaker Mr Fittock who
was also Ponsanooth's carpenter.
"I
was only 14-years-old when I joined Mr Fittock's business,"
smiles Len. "I remember saying that I wanted to start as a
carpenter, and that I wasn't looking forward to doing funerals.
He said to me that I wouldn't do my first funeral for a year. Three
months later I was doing undertaking!"
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| Len
loves the countryside. |
Len
may have only been 14-years-old at the time but he has not forgotten
his first attempt at the undertaking profession.
"I
had to help to put a body in a coffin," he says. "I was
petrified at carrying a dead person. She was a 90-year-old woman.
It was not so bad in the end, she looked just like she was asleep.
After that I kept going with the undertaking without any fears."
Len
was not in the Fittocks' business for long before he was called
up to serve in the Royal Engineers.
"It
was difficult to leave this beautiful village," recalls Len.
"I had never travelled beyond Plymouth before. At first I was
stationed at Chatham and then in London itself. In the city I worked
as part of the bomb disposal unit. I never left the country because
our unit was needed in the city to deal with countless bombs."
Len
finally took over the undertaking business in 1970 although he had
been managing it for many years before. Even now in his retirement
Len still plays a part in the business which is now run by his son
Kingsley. His love for Ponsanooth continues to grow.
"What
keeps me here is the village's beauty and the friendship of the
villagers," smiles Len. "As far as I know I haven't got
a single enemy in Ponsanooth. I love my home too, I hope they will
carry me out of here, I never want to leave this village."
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