DUDLEY PARSONS

CATALOGUE

RECORDING

SUMMARY

BORN: Stogumber, Somerset, 1908

LIVED: Stogumber, Wheddon Cross, Wootton Courtenay, Timberscombe

RECORDING MADE: 2001

RECORDING LENGTH: 2 hours 45 minutes

Dudley Parsons, the oldest of eight children, was thirteen when he went out to work, living in and driving horses, and 21 when he took a job with George Burnell, who ran the garage in Wootton Courtenay. He started as a general mechanic and ended up doing everything.

He drove the Home Guard around, brought R. E. S. Pepper and his Beanos down from London and took Alfred Munnings out to paint. He picked cars up from Dagenham, did the refuse collection and the school bus run and met Mr Boots, the chemist, off the train. When Mr Burnell went to Africa he ran the business until his son took over.

He has been motorbike scrambling all his life and is a founder member of the Exmoor Motor Club. He has now moved to a sheltered bungalow in Timberscombe and given up driving, but he still plays bingo and does the calling. He has made 14 bingo machines in his time.

Dudley Parsons died in September 2004.

Photograph by Mark J. Rattenbury