About me

I was born on 17th May 1959 in Pembury Hospital, Kent, son of Roger Collins & Ann Butler.  My brother, Lance, was born on 21st October 1960.

Here is a picture of me as a toddler at Truggers Farm, playing in the mud in my wellies.  The picture was taken by my father's brother Philip.  For many years my grandfather ran a milk round for the surrounding villages, which was very unprofitable and was eventually wound up.  I remember piles of broken milk bottles heaped behind the dairy.

On the day of my grandmother Hallett's funeral in 1963 I, just four years old, was being looked after by my aunt Margaret at Truggers.  I managed to fall while playing and gash my knee open on the said broken bottles, and can remember to this day sitting in the huge butler's sink in the farmhouse kitchen watching my blood running down and Margaret trying to stem the flow!  I carry the large scar to this day.

My father worked for many years on the farm, but eventually found his own way in the building trade where he became a skilled joiner. Perhaps it is from here I inherited the interest and skills in DIY and building projects.

There is a larger picture of the farm complex here in my photo album, together with some pictures taken of the farm in the 1940s by my uncle, Philip.

I returned to Chiddingstone School when my parents moved to Bough Beech in Kent, now famous for the reservoir which was built during our time there and now has a flourishing Sailing Club. 

Here I am with my brother Lance in 1966 in our small terrace house.

The house was a tiny "2 up, 2 down" cottage next to Chequers Garage (shown here in 1966) and I have many happy memories of our time here.

The Pocock family lived in the garage, John & Kath with Geraldine and Michael their children. We became good friends and had hours of fun building camps and tree-houses in the grounds of the garage and playing in the wrecked cars stored at the back.  We also ran a little shop in a greenhouse behind the garage for a while - we hardly ever sold any of the largely junk we had in stock, but it amused us and kept us out of trouble on the whole!

We sometimes cooked vegetable stews over an open fire, and we took great delight in inviting our parents to share the revolting fare!

As youngsters we trailed far on wide on foot, and later on bicycle.  We did some pretty dangerous things looking back - sliding on frozen ponds in winter, floating on large blocks of polystyrene found near the river and climbing trees.   We, of course, suffered the occasional graze or bump, but nothing serious ever happened.

Here Lance (left) and me (centre) are enjoying a soapy bath with our neighbours' children Philip, Linda and Sally Littler.  This family is also shown on my genealogy pages as they are now related, by marriage, to one of my cousins!

My parents inherited a small sum of money when I was about 11  and were able to buy a rather dilapidated semi-detached Victorian cottage in the village of Groombridge on the Kent and Sussex borders. It was had at a 'snip' of a price, hence its change of name to 'Snippets'!

While we lived in Groombridge my brother, Lance, joined me at Skinners. After a few years Mum & Dad started looking around for a house with a garden (Snippets had none), and found a house to their liking in the small village of Ashurst, Kent.  Here my mother still lives. She was on the committee for the new village hall which helped Ashurst, the smallest village in Kent, to be the 2001 Village of the year.

Graduation year finally dawned, 1981, and I had managed to get an honours degree in Electronic & Electrical Engineering.  Here are a couple of pictures taken on the day.

To celebrate I, with a group of my friends, embarked on a month long camping tour of Europe.  Here I am on the crater of Vesuvius looking very much the part of carefree student!

We kept a humorous diary of this holiday, which was only marred near the end when our minibus was broken into and many belongings stolen.

There are a few pictures of this trip in the Photo Album. Luckily I had been storing my exposed rolls of film in the food 'cool box', which the thief didn't take.

I was fortunate to be sponsored to do my MSc by my company and here I am with Mum & Dad on my the day I received my Masters, again at Surrey University.