Memory doesn’t quite stretch to the period when Tom Forrest stopped being the Ambridge gamekeeper. There’s also the complication that there used to be two shoots, two gamekeepers’ cottages, and two gamekeepers, but in the mid twentieth century the only keepers I remember are Tom and George. So although there may have been others looking after the birds in between, I’m pretty sure that George was under-keeper to Tom and took over as Head Keeper on Tom’s retirement.
Unlike Tom, George is an outsider. Not only that but a BLUFF NORTHERNER (perish the thought). He’s not universally welcome when he arrives in Ambridge in the early 1970s. As is now well known, all Ambridge keepers must be depressed at some time in their lives, and with George it was in those early years before Ambridge had even got to know him. Alcoholic, with a Catholic (and therefore impossible to divorce) wife back in Yorkshire, and showing typical Yorkshire grumpiness, George is difficult to befriend, although barmaid Nora Salt attempts it. After George attempts to kill himself by overdosing on sleeping pills, Nora insists on moving in to look after him.
As we Yorkshire folk say, the relationship was one of *living over the brush*. Funnily enough, I moved in with my boyfriend the same year, so it wasn’t that rare, but apparently it was in Ambridge. This first relationship didn’t last though. Nora moved on, and George was soon on friendly terms with Christine Archer. Eventually able to divorce his ex wife, he married Christine in 1979.
Both George and Christine had sons at the time of their marriage – adopted in Christine’s case, George’s by his first wife. Terry Barford (who we now know is friends on facebook with Lizzie Archer) is George’s son, and apart from getting frisky at Lizzie’s party, we simply never hear of him now. Christine’s son Peter is similarly careless about visiting his old mum (I may be being unkind here as the poor blighter might no longer be with us).
Christine was a successful businesswoman and horsewoman, and ran the Stables, the business Shula now owns having bought it from her aunt on retirement. Christine and George lived at The Stables for some time. This was George’s abode when he fingered Clive Horrobin for one of his many crimes, and got him sent down, leaving Clive with a grudge against him that later on would cause great grief to both George and Christine. But that story is in the future so we’ll save it for another day.
Forward a bit to the time William Grundy meets him, the late 1990s when George is close to retirement. In my memory, there are three men involved in the Wills/George story; George the old head keeper, adjusting to moving from work to retirement, and now working for: Greg the new head keeper, appointed to run the shoot instead of old George: and William, the 14 (ish) year old who shows an interest in the birds that his father Eddie is out to poach. George sees this interest, and recognises something in the lad that wasn’t so obvious in Will’s father. Something worth nurturing, in hope that the lad will end up with a more secure life than his Dad has.
Wills and George become firm friends in that odd way that spans three generations whilst missing out the middle one. By the time Wills is 15, and clearly having no academic ambitions, George persuades Greg to take him on as apprentice, and Clarrie to let him leave school. Before he’s 16, Wills is employed on the shoot and earning – well, not much, but probably more than his mum, and loads more than his brother Ed who’s two years younger than him. A fact that Wills enjoys pointing out to Ed at every opportunity.
So by the time the Grundys are evicted from their home at Grange Farm, Wills has secure employment that requires him to live in Ambridge (early starts being an essential part of the trade). Lucky for him then, that Caroline is able to offer him an apartment in her home, The Dower House. Oh, lucky lucky Will, why do you seem so ungrateful for all the luck you’ve had in your short life? Ah well, perhaps being unlucky in love trumps all the good luck a Grundy boy could ever have.
Post Script: On George’s death he leaves his shotgun to Wills, who later on names his new baby boy George, after his old friend and mentor. George was played by Graham Roberts. There is more about his story in Graham's obituary.
Further blogs are following the history of the Grundys at Grange Farm, the love feud over Emma, and more in the life of George and Christine.