Local Face: Roy Coates

Roy Coates has lived in Wendover for over 22 years now and stays here because he really likes it. He comes from a family of builders who used to move to where the work was. His grandfather owned a general stores and Post Office in Hayes, Middlesex, but he worked as a bricklaying foreman while his grandmother ran the family business. This meant that Roy’s father, Charles, had the opportunity to attend Technical college to the age of 18 years, a rare privilege in those days.

The family has always been very friendly and has found that this attitude has helped both at home and in business life. For instance, Roy’s father ran a firm which subcontracted carpentry with up to 18 employees. When he was working on strike command at Naphill, an electrician told him that Aylesbury Council sometimes sold off individual building plots. This led the family to realise their dream of building their own home. They moved to Aylesbury in the terrible winter of 1962/3 when the weather was so bad that no building work could be attempted between the months of November to March. The family left west London and discovered Buckinghamshire in the Big Freeze. Roy was introduced to the cement mixer at the tender age of 14 and has not looked back since.

Roy started working with his father in 1965 on various contracts and in 1969 they founded the family firm C Coates and Son in Stoke Mandeville. Their first contract was in Thame and they enjoyed chatting with “the woman next door” who turned out to be a major landlord in the town so they established their reputation for very high standard work repairing and maintaining her properties. They eventually decided that they should return to building houses and in the late 1970’S a plot became available in Back Street, Wendover. It had been the public conveniences but was now a demolition site which the firm turned into a lovely cottage in keeping with local character. The purchaser was retiring from the RAF and wanted to stay in the area so everyone was happy.

Within a few years, they had built another 3 houses in Lionel Avenue and Roy moved into one of them from Bishopstone with his wife and two sons. By this time Roy had become used to the peripatetic builder’s life, moving home every two to three years, depending on where the work was. Another plot came up in Wendover so Roy decided to build another house in Wend over but this time, especially for himself and family. To date they have built 28 individual houses in Aylesbury Vale, each one is inspected thoroughly by Roy’s mother before it is released. They only built to one specification.

The direction of the business changed slightly in as much as most of Roy’s work is now local and most mornings it does not take more than three minutes to get to work. Their biggest contract ever was building the shops and offices in Back street where the bakers are found today. They have always done small jobs, this was found to be prudent when in late 1988 the recession arrived. C Coates & son never lost a day’s work throughout. For thirty-one years they traded as C. Coates & son and today they also trade as the Wendover Building Company, carrying out alterations, remedial and extension works.

There have been many changes in building practices over the years, and probably the introduction of plastic underground drainage is foremost in their minds. Working in different houses around the village a lot of funny things happen and their owners know they can ask the builders to carry out unusual tasks. Sitting one day, having a sandwich, a little boy popped and said, “Mum says can you cut the heads off of these?”. ROY was presented with three fish looking up from a plate. Most people remain clients for years and years as well as friends.

About 10 years ago, Roy’s sons, Richard and Edward, came home from Scouts asking if Roy could help carrying things to and from Scout Camp in his van. He thought he had severed all connection with the Scouting movement when he came to Buckinghamshire and left his original scout troop aged 14 but within 6 months, Roy had become a uniformed assistant leader, moving on to scout leader for 7 years, and today he is Venture Scout leader and Quartermaster. He is particularly proud that four of his Scouts have recently visited Offa’s Dyke as the expedition part of their Chief Scout Award. They made an amusing video of the expedition that can now be enjoyed by all the Scouts.

Roy has met a lot of people through Scouting who have become real friends, traveled abroad and camped in some wonderful places, but one of the things to shine through linked with Scouting was to join with four friends and form The Wendover International Trekking society (TWITS). They are a group who like walking, with boots and flat caps. This really started with a fifty mile charitable walk which they completed 1st time round. They have now completed the Chiltern Challenge three times. Wendover has been good to Roy. He wouldn’t like to live anywhere else.