Penrith man Peter Brookes, who died last month at the age of 75, was passionate about football, and was one of the people responsible for the formation of Wetheriggs United — the Castletown-based club which has just celebrated its 60th anniversary.
He and a group of friends started the team, which played its first game a friendly, against Braithwaite in 1963 and Peter scored a brace.
An only child, Peter was born in 1947. His mother, Marjorie, was a single parent and they lived on the Wetheriggs estate when he was a young boy. He attended the town’s grammar school
He met his wife-to-be, Marjorie — or Marj — when she was just 15. He and friend Eddie Walker would travel to Greystoke on an old Francis Barnett motorbike to meet her and her friend Janice.
People said Peter had a lovely smile and this worked its charm on Marj as they married at St Andrew’s Church, Greystoke, in September, 1968. Their first home was in a flat in Argyll House, Wordsworth Street, where their only child, Mark, was born in 1969.
In 1975, they moved to Pategill Walk and spent 13 years there before moving to Meadow Croft, which was their home for the last 35 years.
An interesting addition to their home was an old-fashioned red phone box which Peter bought and put in the back garden! He and Marj also spent many an hour in the “la’al house” (summer house).
On leaving education he started work as an apprentice joiner with Brian Dalton. His uncle Jimmy Lancaster also worked for the company.
A chance meeting at Tebay Services led to him taking a job as a van sales representative for a book wholesaler called Bookwise and many Penrith people will still remember the black Bookwise van.
He loved the book industry and went on to be an area manager, then regional manager, for the company before he and two other former employees set up their own business called the Forward Book Partnership.
Following this, he spent 10 happy years at Hutton Hall working for Birketts bakers with fellow Wetheriggs players Ian Richardson, Chris Malpas, Tony Lewthwaite and Willy Pattinson, before the takeover by Greggs, and then took early retirement to spend time with Marjorie.
They had many holidays abroad, with France, Spain and Portugal being their favourite destinations, and they enjoyed walking and talking — he was never short of words.
Peter’s passion from an early age was football and he and his friends who set up the Wetheriggs team probably never thought it would still be going some 60 years later. Peter would have been proud of the anniversary event to celebrate this milestone, which took place the day after he died.
From being a founder player, he was latterly club chairman, and on a Saturday could be found standing level with the penalty box in his usual place.
His grandson Ben was born in 1995 and was “Grandad’s cabs” number one customer! Ben followed his beloved Sunderland Football Club and Peter would find himself at the Stadium of Light on some very damp and miserable days.
He was the first relative to see his granddaughter Katie, who was born in 1998.
Peter is survived by wife Marjorie, son Mark, daughter-in-law Sally-Ann and grandchildren Ben and Katie.
Donations in his memory were for Breast Cancer Research, as Marjorie suffered from the disease some years ago.
