Interview
Les helped the Castle Inn football team win the Albany Sunday Cup final
ambition to ride: he simply went out
and bought a horse from Southampton
and then taught himself to ride it,
simple as that.
“I used to ride out for a local trainer,
Alan Aylett, to get the practice - it was
like riding a Formula One!” he recalls.
“Then I’d sit at the Newmarket gallops
and watch them”.
Les then went on to school dozens of
tricky horses for their owners. He also
got into showjumping and hunting,
and bred his own horses, and when he
and Pat moved to a bigger home, he
built his own jumps course.
He also taught their daughter
Victoria to ride and at 31 she is now an
accomplished horsewoman.
After four years at the solid fuel depot,
Les moved on to work as a gas fitter for
a few years – before changing direction
yet again by taking a job as manager
of a Newchurch nursery business
employing physically and mentally
handicapped workers.
Growing awareness
He remembers it as a satisfying
period, not just for the prizes and
awards that the nursery workers won at
various horticultural shows, but also for
the lessons he personally learned from
the experience.
“I learned a lot from the people there”
he says. “They take you completely as
you are, and there was such a lot of
humour and good feeling about the
job”.
His enjoyment of the teaching and
guiding role led Les to his next job with
the local education authority, working
with youngsters who were not in
mainstream school.
He taught them gardening, and then
took them out on jobs all over the Island.
One of their biggest projects was
putting in raised beds at the Pan Estate
in Newport, for which they won an
award.
“We had a lot of laughs, the kids could
be themselves, and when we won the
prize I couldn’t have been more proud
of them” he said.
“They’re all big lads now, with families
of their own, and it’s great when they
come over and see me”.
It was after that job that Les took the
decision 12 years ago to set up his own
business, Shore Solutions, and began
selling his own plants.
He buys in young plants, everything
from bedding and perennials to huge
palms and trees, and raises them in the
polytunnels at his home in Newport.
“It’s a good little business and
something I really enjoy doing” he says.
He still has two of his horses, but has
given up competitive riding these days,
in favour of relaxed hacking out along
his favourite Island bridleways.
He delights in visits from daughter
Victoria, who now lives in Ireland, and
in particular loves spending time with
his five year-old grandson Frankie, to
whom he’s affectionately known as
“Gra-gra”.
“He’s my star man” says a proud Les.
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