Page 114 - IT'S A RUM LIFE BOOK FOUR Volume 1 "Northcote 1984 to 1998"

TRAGEDY
This time the insurance company were most unhappy. For us even more so, the vehicles
had been greatly under insured.

The market cart we had valued at £2500 and the Brougham £3000. When we received the
estimate for repairing the Brougham alone it was over £10,000!
We could never afford to replace these vehicles.

The Brougham body was eventually sold for £900 at a special carriage sale at Reading
Market.
Our insurers insisted on a full alarm system now, every building to be included together
with motion sensors around the yard.

We decided to find a different building for the harness and bought a large second hand
portacabin with security windows from a business in Spilsby for £2000. This was to
become the subject of a County Court judgement against me when I could not pay the
agreed instalments on this building following our loss of income due to the commencement
of the national Lottery the next year. (See “Chapel Floor Heating”).

However, we did install the portacabin as our new harness room and it did prove to be
burglar proof!

From this time on we were highly security conscious. Many the night I would find myself
wandering across to the centre as the motion sensor had been activated. More often than
not I was wearing wellies and a dressing gown. Under my arm was a.. .410 shot gun as on
my own I would have been no deterrent to a strong arm gang.

Terena and Geoff, once they had begun to live on the site, took over this “walkabout task”.

Vigilance with our visitors and strange vehicles cruising around the area we are sure
scotched one or two further attempts to break our security.
Before the local Police became un-approachable we did warn them of several unusual
incidents that were proven to be potential criminals on the prowl!

As a footnote, when we could manage a day off together, Ruth and I liked to visit old
houses. One such was Calke Abbey near the East Midlands Airport in Nottinghamshire.
They had a fine collection of harness and several carriages and on our visit there after our
experience with thieves we did take the trouble to find someone in authority and explain
what had happened to us. We recommended that they take extra precautions to protect
their harness and vehicles.
With the best will in the World, you just can not help some folk. Calke Abbey thought we
were inexperienced busybodies and within a few months the thieves had struck there too.
They lost all their harness!