Anybody know / remember Fred Woolley?
This post doesn't really belong in here but, please, bear with me. If you live in Marple and like real ale, you may be able to help.
Here's the story. I'm looking for Fred Woolley, a long-time - lifelong? - resident of Marple. We were IT students together at Salford University, 1986-89. If he's still with us, he'd be about 63 or 64 now and I'd surprised if he'd left Marple.
I believe that, after graduating, he worked in Manchester for an advertising agency called Pace, but can find no trace of the company now.
Various searches online have produced nothing, so I'm now thinking laterally. Did my mate like a beer? No, he liked several beers, and had the build to prove it. He once told me that he had a stone of weight for every year of his age - he was then 37 - although, despite being tall as well as broad, he may have been exaggerating. I once saw him put away six pints during a lunch break, to no obvious effect.
I remember Fred once saying, "I've supped in every licensed premises in Marple, even [said with a grimace] the 'Con' Club." He was an avowed Liberal, my Fred - note, a Liberal, NOT a LibDem.
He was a keen quizzer, playing regularly for a Marple pub. A couple of times, to cover absences, I went with him and substituted for one of his mates. I don't really recall the other quiz team members, although I think that 'Jimmy' was forever travelling abroad on business, something to do with marine insurance, and had once won a trip to see the Superbowl, courtesy of a Castella competition. I'm not sure what the pub was called. I had remembered it as "The Bowler," then found that Marple has no such pub; I'm now wondering if this is a trick of age and it was the "Hatter's" I should have remembered?
The only other thing that I can think of that might help to identify Fred - not Frederick! - was that he played dobro in a country band.
Actually, typing that, I've remembered something else: he lived with his mother, whose bathroom was demolished by a falling tree during the great storm of 1987.
So, there you have it. Can you help? If so, I'd be delighted to hear from you at cgappleby@yahoo.co.uk. If it's a long story, don't bother typing it all out, just give me a number to call.
To be honest, given Fred's lifestyle - including his liking for a glass and a plateful, plus the cigarettes - I'm not optimistic. But, one way or another, I'd really like to know. He might not have been one for keeping in touch but, a quarter-century ago, Fred did more than most to keep me nearly sane during three very trying years.
Thanks for your time... Fingers crossed.
Colin Appleby
P.S. I can't find a photo of Fred anywhere, but I'm attaching one of me taken at the time - May '89, in fact.
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