Profile - Hilary & Vernon Docwra

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Profile

Hilary & Vernon Docwra

Hilary and Vernon Docwra live in Cross Lane – when we came to the village in 1964 it was known as the Jehovah Witness House, as it had a baptismal pool in the garden and was built by a couple who were, indeed, Jehovah Witnesses. It is a very unusual house with a beautiful garden, Hilary’s pride and joy. The pool is now a pretty pond with water lilies and fish.

Hilary Barlow was born in Birmingham where her father was House Master at a boys Public School. She and her mother spent most of the war years evacuated to Scotland whilst her father was in the RAF - he was a fluent linguist and worked in Intelligence, but never spoke of the war. Later, two brothers arrived. At the age of 18 Hilary went to Southampton University to read Geography and Geology and then did a post graduate year in education, enabling her to start her first teaching job at a secondary school on the edge of the New Forest. She then taught at Reigate Grammar School for Girls and then at a comprehensive school in Caterham so at quite a young age she had a great deal of experience in all types of education.

She was always sporty, playing cricket and hockey and was in the Southern Universities’ Hockey team. She was also fond of singing and belonged to an amateur operatic society and once sang the Countess in The Marriage of Figaro!

Vernon was born in Ealing; he has an older brother and younger sister. His father’s sister had married his mother’s brother – can you get your head around that – and they bought a very large house in Ealing where they all lived together, with grandparents and an uncle, Brian Willey, who was the producer of Saturday Club on the BBC Light Programme – some older readers may remember that. A very cosy and safe environment surrounded by cousins, aunts and uncles.

Vernon’s father eventually became personnel manager of a large electronics firm in Enfield and they moved out to their own house in Goff’s Oak – it must have seemed very quiet. Mother was a piano teacher, she had about 50 pupils and charged 2/6d a lesson! Vernon played the violin.

He attended Cheshunt Grammar School and then the Northern Polytechnic in London where he studied for six years to become a Quantity Surveyor, eventually becoming a Fellow of the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors in 1989. His first job was in Piccadilly working over Hatchard’s Book Shop, where his ‘office’ was the cupboard of the bedroom used by John Hatchard in 1790. Things did not go too well on his first assignment which was refurbishing the Greek and Roman galleries of the British Museum. The first time the tower crane rotated the jib went straight through the window of the Director General and in an adjacent gallery the reverberations sent a priceless vase crashing to the floor!

He soon moved on to a small firm in Hertford where

much of their work was done for McMullen’s Brewery – the topping out parties were always well supplied with alcohol! After a couple of years there he moved to Davis, Bellfield & Everest in Golden Square in London where he spent three years working on the building of Mondial House, the £230 million HQ of British Telecom Telephone Exchange. Ironically some 10 years later he went down to look at a potential job near Cannon Street to find that Mondial House had been demolished because satellite communication had made it obsolete.

Vernon by that time was living in Royston and finding the daily commute irksome, he decided to transfer to the Cambridge Branch where the first job he was given was back in London. In the mid 80’s he decided to go solo, he had a number of contacts and the business grew and prospered. He has worked on some stunning projects over the years.

Hilary had been married in the 1970’s and when she was left on her own in Litlington with two small daughters she taught briefly at Greneway. She had a strong desire to do more specialised work and went to both London and Cambridge Universities to do part time diplomas in working with teenagers with special educational and behavioural needs. She got a job at Ruggets School in Standon and when that closed she and the senior pupils moved to Pinewood School in Ware. She taught Careers and leaving programmes, organised work experience for school leavers and was always grateful to the companies who had faith in these difficult youngsters and gave them a chance.

Every year she would take school parties on field trips, camping, on a barge, youth hostels and on one fateful occasion took a party to Majorca. All the children got food poisoning, five of them were hospitalised and the rest were being treated in the hotel by a male nurse who spoke no English. Hilary was also ill; it was a nightmare. She only experienced one Ofsted Inspection and on the first day she wore a new chain to hold her glasses round her neck. The Inspector walked into the classroom and Hilary smartly lifted her glasses to her face and jabbed one of the arms into her eye, causing blood to spurt out all over the desk. She had to go to hospital and spent the rest of the week with a bruised and bloodshot eye.

Being somewhat of an expert on careers for special needs she was called upon to lecture to adults on the subject. Eventually Hilary decided to take early retirement at 57 and did supply teaching locally.

Hilary’s daughters both live in Royston – Nichola is a police officer and Janine trained as a graphic artist. Nichola has two daughters at university and Janine has children of 13, 11 and 7. Both Hilary and Vernon get enormous pleasure from them and frequently took the children off in their motor home. They have been together for 30 years, meeting at Bassingbourn Badminton Club although as it happens, they had met many years before when Vernon’s sister lived next door to Hilary in Litlington. They moved into Cross Lane in 1993 and found the house just as it had been in the 60’s. They have transformed it into a delightful, luxurious home with a beautiful kitchen and a really lovely garden. Hilary spends most of her spare time in the garden, which has been in the Open Gardens scheme. This hobby gels well with her other great love which is flower arranging. For many years she has attended workshops under Julie Woods and there is always a stunning floral display in her hall. She relishes the challenge of arranging flowers in a church and is a welcome addition to the team at All Saints. As well as playing badminton she swims regularly, is a keen bird watcher and spent 13 years as business secretary to the U3A and has for many years been a Trustee of the Francis John Clear Almshouses.

Vernon’s brother in law owns a Fish Restaurant in Mill Road, The Sea Tree, which got to the finals of the BBC Good Food competition – I have been there many times and it is excellent- and he also now has a shop in Ware. One of Hilary’s brothers is a Professor of Criminology and lives in America where he writes books on the subject and the other brother makes advertising films in Australia. It goes without saying that Hilary and Vernon visit them regularly and have also enjoyed holidays all over the world. Vernon is an enthusiastic member of Sawston Rotary Club (where my husband is also a member) and they love entertaining.

One of Vernon’s more challenging jobs was the refurbishment of the 500 year old Grade 1 listed courtyard of Eton College. Lord Charteris wanted to make a diversion to one of the paths but, because of the Grade 1 listing, planning permission was refused. However, Lord C. had a word with the Secretary of State Douglas Hurd, an Old Etonian, and miraculously some weeks later planning permission came through. Not what, but who you know! A lead time capsule was buried in the courtyard and amongst other items was a message from H.M. the Queen and Vernon’s Bills of Quantities! Docwra is a very unusual name – I had always assumed it was of Viking origin but Vernon has traced his family tree back to 1290 and it comes from the village of Dockray in Cumbria. The ‘w’ often gets omitted or misplaced and people think the name is Polish.

Nobody calls it the Jehovah Witness house any more, Hilary and Vernon have put their very distinctive stamp of perfection on it. I wish them many more years to enjoy it. Mavis Howard

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