FEATURE
Brookside Luxury Coaches Alfred James Wootten, or Dick as he became known, was from Helpston, one of the four children of the local carpenter and wheelwright Thomas and his wife Laura. He was born in November 1908 and was baptised in the church where poet John Clare is buried, in January 1909. He had two brothers, Fred and Edgar and a sister, Peg. Dick met Hilda Mary King (known as Mary), a Sunday school teacher in Peterborough, and they married at All Saints Church in the city in 1933 when she was 22 and Dick was 25. They set up their marital home in Eastgate, Deeping St James. Mary continued with her community work; having been in charge of the Peterborough Girl Guides she set up the 1st Deeping St James Guides meeting in a small hut in a field over the bridge in Market Deeping. She was also a member of The Deepings Show and Secretary of Deeping St James WI. 14
Dick became a partner in the local coal merchants, Brentall and Cleland, also in Eastgate. Eventually he formed his own business, A.J. Wooten (Coal) Ltd, delivering coal to the local community in the days when coal kept the home fires burning and the coal man would deliver a blackened sack of coal to a bunker that was a prerequisite in every house. When the Second World War broke out Dick joined the local Home Guard which met in the TocH building on the riverside at the top of Eastgate. When the ferocious floods of 1947 came, Dick took his coal lorry and rescued people from their bedroom windows, exchanging sacks of coal for people bundled up and put over his shoulder. By this time Dick and Mary had moved to a large Victorian house, Brookside in Horsegate, opposite what was then a green. There was a well-stocked orchard and garage facilities and Dick saw the opportunity to extend his business. He sold the coal merchants to Mr Allen at The Cross and formed two different companies. One was A.J. Wootten
