Hi, welcome to my website. Here you will find a brief insight into my personal history.

The Early Years.

I was born in the "Sun Inn" a small public house in the village of Darlton in the county of Nottinghamshire in 1958. The pub was run by my grandparents George and Kath Bealby. At the time, my parents Geoff and Janet were living with them.

After a few years we all moved a few miles away to another Pub the "Queens Head" in the neighbouring village of East Markham. Shortly afterwards, with the arrival of my two sisters, we all moved to the village of Woodbeck. This was a village adjacent to Rampton Hospital, a top security mental hospital, where my father became emplyed. It was within these surroundings that I spent most of my remaining childhood, perhaps explaining my strange sense of humour!. I attended Rampton County Primary School between the age of 4 and 11, followed by King Edward VI Grammar School in the local town of Retford till leaving at the age of 16.

Working for a living.

On leaving school I had a brief spell assisting my Grandfather, who was a carpenter, on various building projects around the local area, before starting a Drawing Office apprenticeship with a Company over in Gainsborough, Lincolnshire. As this was nearly 20 miles away, my father introduced me to the world of motorbiking by buying me my first motorbike a Honda SS50. This became my means of transportation through all kinds of weather, with the occasional spill, for several years until after passing my motorcycle test I upgrade to a 'real motorbike' a Honda CB200.

The company I worked for was called "Rose Forgrove" and it was a partnership between "Rose Brothers" of Gainsborough Lincolnshire and "Forgrove" of Leeds. They manufactured wrapping and packaging machinery. "Roses" as it was known, had three drawing offices, its own pattern shop and foundry, a training school and a vast array of machinery. It was the second largest employer in the town, Marshall Tractors being the largest. It was during this early period that I saw where my future lay - computers. I remember seeing an advertisement in my fathers daily newspaper for a sinclair ZX80, and thinking to myself I will have to have one of those. I didn't get one of course, it was to be several years later in 1981 after I got married that I persuaded my new wife to let me spend money, which we didn't really have, on a Commodore VIC20. I remember driving to a computer store in Grimsby on a snowy January morning to collect the technological marvel. It was due to this interest that the company asked me to spend sometime in the Leeds factory learning to use the new Computer Aided Design system they had recently acquired. The software was Computervisions Medusa and it ran on terminals connected back to a Prime mainframe. After several months I returned to Gainsborough and was shortly followed by our own terminal linking back to leeds thorough a Modem and Multiplexor. CAD was here!. Over the coming years two more terminals were purchased and I became the local adminstrator and trainer for my fellow colleagues. In 1987 the company closed and I joined a local firm in Scunthorpe and was employed on contract work. My first contract was with Courtaulds Fibres in Grimsby back working on a drawing board. It was during this period that Coutaulds introduced AutoCAD to their drawing office. I was however not one of the lucky ones to be chosen to use the system, but after reading the manuals I did give those that were picked a introduction to the software preparing them for their official training. This was followed by a contract with ICI Fibres in Doncaster. Here I stayed for 5 years working alongside 2 other ex-Roses draughtsmen working back on the board. I did manage to get use of their CAD system IBM's ME10 on occasions to continue developing my skills. From 1993 to 1994 I had a spell with my current employer JEX Engineering, also of Grimsby, this time securing a place on a AutoCAD workstation. I left for a short period during a lean spell only to return two months later and have been there ever since, enhancing my skills to include programming and customisation along with acquiring skills in Autodesk Inventor, as well as becoming the IT administrator for the companys three sites.

Free Time.

I like to have a go at most things, but there are several hobbies and interest that remain throughout the 'Fads'. For sport I enjoy a good game of tennis and was the secretary of the Roses Tennis club until 2001 when we had to call it a day due to lack of support. I have since moved over to another local club, Gainsborough Town Tennis Club and play whenever I can in the local evening league. I am a supporter of Sheffield United Football Club and have been since my grandfather used to take me on a saturday via the train to watch them play in the seventies.

I enjoy playing the electric guitar and have collected a few examples along the way, see my interests section, although my playing is not quite up to standard yet. I have also become one of the 'born again bikers' recently, purchasing my dream bike when I was a teen, a Harley Davidson Sportster an experience I can share with my Wife Lesley. We do try to get out at a weekend whenever we can and tour the local highways and byeways. Unfortunately my current work involves me spending the weekdays over in Birmingham returning on a friday night and returning on a sunday evening, leaving little time to fit everything in. Another interest that we both enjoy is researching the family history. We have been doing this for the last 10 years or so and have collected vast amounts of data to sift through.

The Future.

Now that our only son, Martin has finished University and has started his own working career we will find ourselves with a lot more time to spend on new and existing projects. One of the main ones will be to get our house updated with a new bathroom and kitchen planned. Plans to upgrade the sportster to a Fat Boy are in the pipeline and with it perhaps touring abroad. Who knows, watch this space!!