Town pays tribute to ex-blacksmith
NEWMARKET JOURNAL FEB 2011. HORSE DRAWN DRAY MAKES ITS WAY TO SOHAM ST ANDREWS CHURCH FOR THE FUNERAL OF RICHARD GOWING.
HUNDREDS of people paid their final respects to a well-known horseman and farrier in Soham this week.
Expert blacksmith Richard Gowing died on Friday, January 27, from prostate cancer. He was 78.
The Soham man’s funeral was held at St Andrew’s Church on Monday and, in a fitting tribute, his coffin was carried to the service by horse-drawn dray.
In his later years, Mr Gowing became a well-known sight up and down the country as a heavy horse show judge and was also the Common Reeve, working for Soham Town Council looking after the common land.
His daughter Diane Lawrence, who lives in Martin Close, Soham, said her father would be remembered as a “friend to everybody”.
“At his funeral there were so many different people there,” she said.
“He never judged anybody before he knew them and he was liked by so many people. He was also a real family man.”
Born in Norwich on June 4 1933, Richard was the eldest of four brothers. He spent his early years in Norfolk before moving to Soham with his family.
His love for horses began while doing his farriers apprenticeship at Rycotewood College in Oxfordshire.
He started his working life in Soham for Mr Worth on Hasse Farm before joining the Veterinary Corps to do his National Service.
On his return, he returned to Worths, which later became Greens of Soham.
He married local girl Daphne King in 1956 and had three children, Diane Helen and Stephen.
He returned to being a blacksmith and farrier in the early 1970s and reopened the old forge, formerly belonging to the Rouse family, in Soham High Street.
The business went from strength to strength and in the early 1980s he moved to 1 Red Lion Square to develop the business, at one time employing seven men.
Richard and Daphne continued to trade from the forge until his retirement.
Diane said: “He met Princess Anne several times through his interest and involvement with horses.”
She said her father was also involved with a number of community projects. He was one of the founder members of Soham Young Farmers Club and worked for the Soham Benevolent Association which stages the annual carnival and heavy horse show.
He was on the board of governors at Soham Village College for a time and was on the committee of Soham United Charities.
He was also a member of the Suffolk Show, where he started the shoeing competitions, the East of England Show, and the Worshipful Company of Farriers.
He was also involved with the Suffolk Punch Trust.
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Friday 25 May 2012
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withangels
Sunday, February 12, 2012 at 10:44 AMRichard Gowing planned his own funeral weeks before he died. How very apt it was in its sheer simplicity. I probably had no more than a dozen conversations with Richard, but liked him enormously from the first time of speaking. He loved horses and rural life; he was interesting, kind, decent and an absolute gentleman in every sense of the word. Everything about his funeral was deeply touching from the plain, almost unadorned coffin and the means of its journey to the church and cemetery. The haunting song "To be a farmer's boy" was a reminder of the respect there used to be for the land. It was sung for his entrance into the church and his departure, borne by farriers. He had clearly given considerable thought to his final journey, right down to the two traditional hymns. He will be very much missed by the family of which he was so proud, but also by those of us whose lives he touched.
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