PROFILE
John Mills - Plumber at art Local plumber, John Mills has always had a passion for art. He joined his father in the family firm after studying plumbing for four years at Peterborough Tech but it was a present given to him by his Mother for his 21st birthday which fuelled a passion which has stayed with him all his life. The simple box of oil paints gave rise to faltering efforts at first but gradually the views of the river, the lakes and the old buildings of the Deepings were immortalised on his canvases, gracing many family homes, the gift of choice for those with relatives and friends living away. With a portfolio spanning Venice and Madeira and including the North Norfolk coast, it is a print of Low Locks and the depictions of old Deeping from old postcard scenes that have proved most popular. John also takes on commissions, perhaps the most unusual being the painting of a prize winning pigeon for local enthusiast, Barry Thirtle. For many years John and wife Carole organised the exhibition for local artists at the Deeping Show. John is eldest of the two sons of Arthur Mills from Edenham who, having plyed his trade on the Grimsthorpe Estate saw an opportunity in the Deepings. In 1949, Fred Otter, the plumber here had retired and Arthur moved into a small cottage at the top of Frognall. His father had been a blacksmith, responsible for making the straps for the Major Oak in Sherwood Forest, his mother, her family originally Huguenots, had come from a fruit farming family in Wisbech but Arthur was to make Deeping his own. The only plumber in the area which was much smaller then than it is now of course, Arthur soon got to know everyone in the neighbourhood. The family moved out of Frognall, they liked the village but the sound of frogs would keep them awake at night! 14
Towngate was also considered to be separate from the rest of Deeping at this time. It was surrounded by cornfields and it was here that Arthur was to build his dream house replete with cellar and snooker room.
‘...it was a present given to him by his Mother for his 21st birthday which fuelled a passion which has stayed with him all his life’
John attended the little school in Deeping St James where he was taught by Nancy Titman and then went to the Green School in Market Deeping followed by the Endowed School in Church Street, Market Deeping. With Miss Moppet as headmistress, there were so many pupils that overspill classes were held at the top of the White Horse! After a brief spell at a secondary school in Bourne, John was the first pupil to be enrolled at the Deepings School in 1958 with a roll of 240 and where he later became Head Boy with Mr Lamb as Head Teacher.
John had a happy childhood, he remembers the river teeming with eels, often eaten by locals and on one occasion a sheet of elvers by the High Locks sign. A treat was a visit to the Empire Cinema where you could sit in the front seats for sixpence (2.5p today). Once a year there would be a free show for local school children; when black & white comedy films were shown. Mrs Cornwell’s sweet shop was opposite St Guthlacs Church, home to liquorice whirls and sherbet dips. Not so happy were memories of Beaumont the dentist, an old fashioned teeth puller. John married local girl, Carole, daughter of Dick Wootten a haulage contractor and coach proprietor, responsible for all the school runs in the fifties, trips to the seaside and taking workers to Smedleys. The pair would go to Bill Mulligan’s Coffee bar opposite the Empire in Market Deeping, with a group of friends they approached Horace Thompson, then owner of the Manor House in DSJ. He
