His many friends were saddened to learn of the death of Peter Jackson Woof — a larger than life character well known in the Penrith area for his unfailing smile and love of good crack. He was 82 years old.
Born at Midtown House, Cliburn, Peter was one of the nine children of Jim and Maggie Woof. He grew up in a very busy and happy house with his siblings George, Sheila, Dorothy, Alan, Audrey, Richard, Lesley, and Kathleen.
He had an idyllic life growing up in Cliburn, with one of the things he enjoyed being riding point to point with his brother Alan — especially when they won and made a bit of money.
Peter left school at 15 to work as a trainee joiner for Jack Taylors, which later became Lowther Construction. However, this did not last long as, in his own words, he was “useless at it and didn’t like it”.
Following in his father’s footsteps he then went to drive wagons, at first for Bob Thompson on long distance routes, then for Gordon Stamper taking sand up to Wet Sleddale, for Tuers during construction of the M6 and finally for Alan Gowling taking magazines to London.
It was in 1964 that he met his future wife Ruth at a friend’s 21st birthday party. They married in 1966 and went on to have two daughters, Sarah and Rachel, while Caroline became like a third daughter to them.
They at first lived very happily for five years in Shap, where Peter would often sing at the Greyhound Hotel, a popular village watering hole. They then moved to Elm Terrace, Penrith.
Although Peter loved driving wagons he did not like being away from his family and so started work at Pearl Assurance as a local agent. He remained there for 25 years and made many friends, loving to chat with the people he visited — sometimes to the point he forgot to sell them anything!
Peter, Ruth, Sarah and Rachel moved to Strickland Terrace in 1989, where the door was always open and they had lots of great parties and get-togethers.
Unfortunately Peter lost Ruth in 2003 and he missed her dearly, saying: “She was not just my wife, she was my best friend and always kept me right.”
During the 1970s and 80s he and Ruth were great supporters of Penrith Cricket Club, even though he did not play. He was a frequent spectator at matches and attended many social events. One of his proudest moments was when his team Woof’s Warriors won the club’s evening medals competition.
He enjoyed taking part in Castletown Social Committee pantomimes and loved taking on the role of the dame. Much to his friends’ surprise he ran the London Marathon in 1982 — probably because someone said he would never be able to do it so he had to prove them wrong. He ended up finishing near the back in six hours and appeared on television.
Peter’s other big passion was horse racing. He visited many courses and loved going with his family to the Ebor festival at York, where he dressed up in his finery and put on a picnic with champagne beforehand.
Another memorable moment was at Haydock Park when a horse he part-owned won the Peter March Chase in the late 1980s.
Peter always loved his holidays — caravan rallies all over the UK and across Europe, and later on, trips to Australia, New Zealand and America. More recently his favourite places were Tenerife and Dublin.
In his retirement Peter started driving hospital cars, which he loved and never thought of as work. He did this for 22 years and only stopped due to the pandemic, which saddened him greatly. He went all over taking patients to their hospital appointments and collecting samples from GP surgeries.
He was a huge Liverpool FC fan and never missed a match. In the last few weeks of his life he managed to get down to Anfield and was delighted to see his own Anfield Forever stone laid in the fan zone.
Other things he enjoyed included listening to the Archers on the radio and watching repeats of Only Fools and Horses.
However, his biggest love was his family. Always there in a crisis, he never judged and was always very supportive of anything they did. He lived for and was extremely proud of his grandchildren Isabella, Molly and Noah and his two special nieces Samantha and Beth.
