Bierton Strict And Particular Baptists, A Testimony of David Clarke

242 me permission to rent out the other rooms. This was unfortunate for the neighbours, who did not share my interests. I took over the house and my habits continued. Shopping at Harrod’s continued. The more people I knew the more items I found to buy and so I soon filled the garage with wonderful items of value.

I Take in lodgers My first tenant was a Mr Alan McCarthy, a window cleaner who had come from Manchester, although he had lived in Fareham for some time. I said he could have a room for £40 per week. I hadn’t realised, but he had been living in a motor vehicle ambulance in a garage, somewhere near Segensworth throughout that winter, and had severe problems due to possible drug abuse and his broken marriage. I discovered he was a baptised member of the Mormon Church but was not actually practising. I think he appreciated the fact that I took him, in without references. He had a few pounds, but that was all.

For Alan things were not easy and I am sure he felt a bit like Jonah (a character from the Bible) as things started to go wrong for him the moment he moved in with me. In straightening out his room he attempted to nail down the floorboards only to find he put a nail through the central heating water pipe that Sunday evening and water was running everywhere. Alan felt he was to blame and found it difficult to cope with. Nevertheless I soon fixed this, to his relief.

My next tenant was Sean Land (some say Private Land). He was a friend of Alan and had been living in his Ford Fiesta during the winter nights too.

I think Sean also had problems with drug misuse, a broken relationship and was not able to see his daughter. Sean had a more personal problem- his music and his feet. His music was too loud and his feet smelt.

It was their music, which caused the neighbours to complain to the council. We were served with noise monitoring forms and threatened with confiscation of equipment if the noise level was not kept down. It was difficult to convince these lads of the amount of noise they were making.

The next inmate was Mark, another acquaintance of Alan and Sean.

Occasionally Mark’s girl friends stayed the night.

Joe Neve was the next to take up residence; he loved cars and was in an out of trouble with the police all the time.

It was from Joe that I obtained my lovely Fiesta, a 1.4 cc engine, in nice condition, for £40. This car took the place of my car (TAN 707Y), which I bought, from a Motor Vehicle lecturer at Fareham College.