John Winckles: Original resident of street on Bishop’s Stortford’s Parsonage estate who moved in 65 years ago dies aged 90
One of the last surviving original residents on a Bishop’s Stortford estate has died – leaving his home like a museum piece from the start of the Sixties.
John Winckles moved into a new-build in Blackbushe on the Parsonage estate with wife Joyce in 1960 and lived there for 65 years until his death on September 25. He was 90.
His three daughters, Karen and twins Barbara and Alison, told the Indie they had the unenviable task of deciding what to do with the lifetime of possessions he left at the house, including a huge model railway layout in the loft.
Among the items the sisters found was a brochure for the “Parsonage Farm Estate” of freehold detached and semi-detached houses built by Allen Bros (Builders) Ltd, along with photos of their house as it was being built and when their parents moved in.
John had moved from his family home in Wembley, north-west London, to the small road off Manston Drive on the “airport estate” directly after his wedding to Joyce on February 27, 1960.
The couple had met at Lloyd’s Bank in the City of London and, in the words of Alison, were “smitten”. The sisters found love letters between the two in the house.
On moving in, all the newlyweds had was a bed, a sofa, a stove and a fridge. Joyce gave up her job, but John carried on working in the City for an Australian bank, taking the train every morning from Bishop’s Stortford station until he retired in 1983 aged just 48.
Karen was born in March 1961 and then the couple had a surprise three years later when unexpected twins were born at the house. Karen said that after the twins’ appearance her dad, like a true banker, sat on the stairs, working out the costs of caring for the family.
John was meticulous in keeping all his receipts, going back to 1955, and he kept the sisters’ bedrooms as they were when they left home.
The daughters said the house is as it was when their parents moved in.
They spoke of happy childhoods, with their home being an open house to the neighbours’ children. Their mum was a great cook, making home-made dinners and birthday cakes for the girls. Their dad was very strict, though, and even when they were at secondary school their bedtime was 8pm, with a treat of 15 minutes extra on their birthdays!
John loved gardening and cycling, and when he was no longer able to get in the saddle, he and Joyce could be seen riding around town on their mobility scooters. Besides going to the shops, John travelled on his licensed scooter to the villages outside Stortford.
The pair had been introduced to mobility scooters on a visit to Alison at her home in Canada. They also visited John’s brother, Keith, in Australia.
The lifetime love affair ended when Joyce died in October 2019. John was devoted to his two grandsons, Christopher and Daniel, and was devastated when Christopher died in August this year.
John had survived cancer three years ago and overcame the crippling Guillain-Barré syndrome – a rapid-onset muscle weakness caused by the immune system damaging the peripheral nervous system – but his health finally failed over the past few weeks and he died at home, as he had wished.
Karen said: “His life revolved around us before his hobbies. He had a good life.”
John’s funeral will be held at Bishop’s Stortford Methodist Church on Friday October 24 at 1.30pm. The sisters have requested family flowers only, with donations invited to Inflammatory Neuropathies UK. The sisters said the charity helped their dad understand Guillain-Barré syndrome and learn from other sufferers’ experiences.
The sisters made sure not to hold the funeral on a Thursday because traditionally on that day their dad would buy something from the fishmonger in town, cook fish and chips for their mum and do nothing for the rest of the day. “He wouldn’t have liked it if we held the funeral on a Thursday,” said Barbara.
