David Lane was well known around Broadwas and I would like to include this memory of the service given for him after his death. Like many people I knew David quite well, often bumping into him occasionally over the years. He married Grace Nicholas, whose parents were Tom and Winifred Nicholas, and they lived above Ankerdine Hill, at Collins Green, just down below the reservoir. Grace had two older brothers Louis and Clive, and I went to school at Broadwas with them all. Later going to the Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School, in Bromyard, with Clive.

David was also at Broadwas, and went to the Grammar school the year before myself and my cousin Julie Ganderton.

Albert George Lane, married Mary Catherine Millington, and their son David John Lane was born on the 14th January, 1948 at Astley, Worstershire. Later they moved near Wants Green, Broadwas.

David married Grace Nicholas at Broadwas Church on the 31st May, 1975, and they set up home further down the road at Upper Doddenham Farm. Here they had their son Mark David Lane in 1983.

David's son, Mark, stood and told of his fond memories of his father, and kindly gave me the notes that he used to tell this story of his Dad. I feel sure that all those who were at the service will remember how well Mark interpreted the following.

After Mark had spoken about his father, Allan Jeffries a great friend of his Fathers for many years, gave the following talk of his memories of David.

Dave Lane – Bronco – Memories [ by, Allan Jeffries ] please click here to open

Dave Lane – Bronco – Memories [by, Allan Jeffries]

I always called him Dave, but he was also known as David, and I think most people referred to him as Bronc.  I think Grace used all three and I noticed her tone change when (as all those that experienced Dave’s hospitality would recognise) as soon as you stepped through the door, you would hear the words – “come on love, get the tea made”, regardless of how busy she was!

Dave’s main love in life was his family, Grace and Mark.  He was always very proud of what Mark had achieved since leaving school. 

Next came motor bike scrambling and farming. 

When he left school, he went to work on local farms, and he was soon recognised as hardworking, reliable and having a great knowledge of animals and the countryside.

He also went lime spreading, driving miles on a Nuffield tractor – no luxury cab with radio and heater in those days, but he didn’t mind, he was too busy farming over the hedges.

Dave then had the chance to work for Turiffs who were laying gas pipelines all over the UK.  With his work ethic, he was working long hours earning good money.

In 1977, he branched out and began farming on his own, keeping cattle and sheep and going to market two or three times a week, mainly Kidderminster, Gloucester, Hereford and Worcester.  The 70s and 80s were what I consider to be the best and most enjoyable years in Dave’s and my lifetime.  There were so many more markets in those days and they all had large numbers of stock and were busy with plenty of farmers and dealers.

Dave thrived and prospered in those years, and he took a lot of grass keep locally, including some further down the lane from us.  He used to lamb about seven or eight hundred Welsh mountain sheep which he always referred to as ‘Basils’.  These sheep had spent their life on the Welsh Mountains but would be able to manage another lambing on better pasture in the lowlands.  He loved these sheep as they were such characters, they knew how to look after their lambs and were happy lambing outdoors.  We used to help him quite a bit, especially at lambing, Fi, my wife is quite good at difficult lambings and if his truck appeared, she knew what would be in the back, day or night and there weren’t many times he didn’t go back without a live lamb.  Dave was a friend who you knew appreciated it, after tea and cake his parting words were always the same – “Put it on the bill.”

Another favourite saying of his if he didn’t agree with what you were doing was “You obviously didn’t read the small print!”

One year he lambed a number of Welsh Mountain ewe lambs and at the time he had a Vauxhall Viva car.  Pudford Bank where he was lambing the sheep was steep – the top bit was so steep it now has trees planted on it and over the years it saw two overturned tractor accidents.
Not daunted in the slightest, Dave drove this Vaushall Viva with Fi in it up and across the bank, right to the top, collecting newly lambed ewes and their lambs.  By the time they got back down, there were seven tegs and lambs in it, two in the boot, four in the back and one and her lamb in the passenger footwell.  This is an absolutely true story, it took Fi a week to recover!  Dave used to give Fi a ewe lamb if it needed bottle rearing and these lambs were the foundation of our flock, we still have descendants of some of them.

Dave would always try to be helpful if he could.  In the eighties with milk being overproduced, a cull scheme was introduced where you could send your herd for slaughter and be paid for it.  Dave happened to be at a local dairy farm where all the cows were being culled the next day.  The cowman was upset that his favourite cow who had just calved with her second calf was going to be culled.  Dave stood there and with his familiar action, a little adjustment to his cap, he said “Leave it to me, I’ll do something”. By night-time, she was in our milking parlour, we had her for seven or eight years.  Whenever Dave happened to call at milking time, he always went to see ‘Miss Ellie’.

There was a motorbike scramble held in Martley in the early sixties and Dave used to ride his pushbike to the meeting.  Not long after, he started competing.  His first bike was a BSA Gold Star.  When he was earning the good money on the gas pipeline, he was off to Mick Burton Motorcycles in Malvern and bought a brand new BSA Victor – their latest model. 

A Maico followed a few years later, then a Husqvarna.  Dave had considerable success over a number of years, and he was very pleased to have ‘Fastest Time of the day’ at Red Marley Hill Climb held at Great Witley. 

He retired from competing in the early eighties as he became busy doing the farming.  In the Millenium Year, Red Marley hill climb was held again and as soon as Dave heard this, it wasn’t long before a 400 Husqvarna was purchased and he was competing again and up until about 4 years ago, he continued regularly competing in Classic Scrambles with his friends, Phil & Colin Edwards, Neville Clegg and Rupert to name a few.  He seemed to know everyone in the paddock and there was always a tale to be told.

I have lots of little amusing tales involving Dave.  One day, their television broke so Dave went off to Currys in Worcester, walking into the store about quarter to eight in the evening.  It didn’t take him long to pick one out, there was just one young salesman on duty, Dave said, “How much is this?”  The young lad looked at the price tag – “It’s £200 sir” the young man told him.  Dave’s swift reply was “How can a poor man like me afford that sort of money, how does £150 sound?”  This lad hadn’t experienced this before and said, “Sir, we don’t give discounts.”  Dave told him to go and tell his manager what he had offered, the lad was back in two minutes, he said his boss said “At 5 to 8 on a Saturday night to snatch your hand off!”

A similar story, on a really snowy, day Dave drove up Clifton Bank in his 2-wheel drive car to Dave Yarnold’s Machinery to buy a 4-wheel drive Zetor tractor.  His first words to Dave Yarnold were, “I’ve come for a deal because looking at the tyre tracks coming up the hill, you haven’t had many customers today.”  Dave Yarnold told me this story as well and he said “by the time he left I had lost about £50 on what the tractor cost me!’

In his later years Dave travelled many miles buying cattle for customers, mainly from markets in Wales or the South West.  One of his favourite places was the Preseli Mountains in Wales.

Dave was a great character, a true countryman and market man who was always ready to help anyone if they needed it but also drove a hard bargain in business.  He will be greatly missed by all who knew him and especially by his family, Grace and Mark.

Here is a lovely photo [Thanks to Andrew Taylor - I have changed the old black and white to colour] David Lane is behind the cart with two girls, the tallest one we think is Wendy Vernals, the other could possibly be Pat Ganderton.

Andy Taylor is leaning against the front, and to his right are David Pearce, Peter Friend, David Barry, Billy Barry, and Caroline Ganderton. They are standing by the opening off the A44 at the start of Stoney-Ley. Andy's dad Alf Taylor owned the Forge Filling Station opposite them all, and may have taken this photo!