A FRIEND of mine died a few weeks ago, his name was Patrick Cutler, he was the quickest and neatest bricklayer I had ever known.
Most people didn’t call him Patrick, he was known as “Worzel”.
He was a freelance bricklayer, who carried out a lot of work.
When he was slack he would call me up and ask if I could fit him in for a few days of brickwork, which I often did.
This particular day we had a roofing job in Lee Road the back roof was a slate roof so Worzel and I went round there.
We put the ladders up against the roof where the valley was.
I walked up the lead valley, I could fix most of the slates myself but there was a slate missing around 6ft away, it was a pointed ridge so I couldn’t really sit on it, so I had to scramble along.
So Worzel placed the ladder below where I was going to fix the slate and I could slide down to the ladder.
So by the time I had fixed the slate I could see Worzel and the ladder at the edge of the roof, so I intended to slide gently down the roof to him.
As soon as my backside touched those slates, I slid down like a rocket, I could see the whites of Worzel eyes as I hurtled down.
My feet hit the rungs of the ladder with a resounding smack but luckily Worzel held onto the fascia and we all got down safely.
From that day onwards I was known to him as “Dangerous Brian”.
If I had any brickwork jobs come in I would phone Worzel’s “office”, aka the Stingray pub, as soon as they knew “Dangerous Brian” wanted to speak to Worzel he always miraculously appeared.
He was a character and a dear friend. Rest in Peace Worzel.
Maurice Willis
Dove Crescent, Harwich
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