A day in Arlesey with . . .
. . . Richard Waterhouse & Ed Kennedy
Richard has lived with his artist wife Jane in The Old School for 40 years . He is better known locally as The Piano Man , a business he runs with partner Ed Kennedy who helps keep him on the straight and narrow !
How does the day start with the Piano Man ? Richard : Well we never used to have an alarm clock or television . That was quite good really . In fact we didn ’ t have a television until John ( eldest son ) came home with one from Andy Batchelor of “ Visions ” who lived in the cottage by the church . And it wasn ’ t until the children had to go to school we got an alarm clock . We only used to be open for three hours on a Saturday morning , so it didn ’ t matter when we got up . Those three hours were chaos in here , families with three children each all on the pianos , there ’ s an awful lot to be said for it , it used to be bl *** y mayhem .
How did you start the Piano business ? Richard : Jane and I lived in Hitchin , I was dealing in antiques at the time and really we were looking for somewhere to live where we could do things . The place here we got it because we put an advertisement in the local paper offering for a hundred pounds reward for information leading to successful purchase of large old property . Well we bought it from The Church of England and all the windows were smashed . I spent a long time cutting tiny diamonds out of horticultural glass to replace them . Initially Jane and I lived in the workshop on a mezzanine . We had an outside loo with no roof . The row of toilets from when it was a school had all gone rotten so we had an umbrella as the toilet roof . A man from the council came round and said “ have you installed a toilet ?” and I said “ no , but I ’ ve taken 7 out ”! I had dealt in some pianos and pianolas before and when we moved here we had the space . It really took off about 35 years ago . I can remember one winter ’ s evening single handedly with six pianos in the snow on my own in Milton Keynes – oh god I must have been a lunatic .
St Peter ’ s Old School
Questions by Jodie Chillery
Ed : I was working in the antique trade and thinking about going to study journalism . Richard had a reputation as the most frighteningly , fearsome eccentric antiques dealer in the area . When I met him I knew all about him . But we got chatting and got on , and he offered me the opportunity to do some deliveries and I needed some time out of the antiques trade to clear my head . That was 22 years ago – we ’ re business partners now !
And I understand people come from far and wide to see you ?
Ed : Oh yes people come from exotic places , we had a chap from Little Paxton recently ! Richard : We love it , we get wonderful customers . We meet lovely people . The people who value things that are worth valuing come here . We sold one last year to the musician comedian chap … Ed : Hugh Laurie Richard : lovely chap Ed : When he came back from America he came here to buy a piano - – I did recognise him . Richard : I didn ’ t . Ed : We treated him like any other customer … Richard : Well I did because I didn ’ t know who he was ! Ed : He was about to leave without us alluding to the fact we , well I , knew who he was when Richard said “ Oh I had no idea who you were until he told me ”!! He was a super man , very nice we had a cup of tea . Richard : He was full of enthusiasm and really took our advice about blues and jazz instruments .
We once had an elderly couple turn up in an open top car ( to buy a piano ) and they took the corner off the hedge as they left . They were newlyweds and she was completely blind and he ’ d only just discovered she could play the piano . Eventually they ended up buying a baby
10 on the button issue 48 August 2016 | 01462 834265 | steve @ onthebuttonarlesey . co . uk | www . on-the-button . co . uk