EVANSON Leslie

EVANSON Leslie

Leslie passed away suddenly in the Countess of Chester Hospital aged 88 years.

Formerly of Tattenhall Lanes, Beloved Son of Mr & Mrs Frank Evanson.

Brother to Joan and George.
Leaves a widow Margaret, son Richard, and Grandchildren Lucy and Henry.

The funeral service will take place at Wrexham Crematorium (Pentrebychan) at 2:00pm on Thursday 27th April.

Les served his time as an electrical apprentice with local electrician Alf Gosmore, and when he married Margaret, they moved on to a small holding at Malpas in 1956; this to take up a lifetime of growing and selling vegetable produce.

With wife Margaret, they owned and farmed land in Malpas, Oldcastle and Clutton.

They also farmed rented land at Prees, and Hampton.

They grew and harvested many types of vegetables including strawberries, summer, spring and winter cabbage, potatoes, carrots, leeks, cauliflower, broccoli, beetroot and peas.

Both put in many long hours of back breaking work to get produce ready for the early morning trips to their wholesalers.

They sold the produce to local shops in Malpas and Whitchurch and to wholesalers in Shrewsbury, Wrexham, Goostrey and onto the Manchester Fruit and Veg market.

Over many seasons they harvested and transported harvested potatoes from Prees and Clutton to store in the barn at Malpas

They regularly worked in partnership with his brother in Law, Peter Formstone and his wife Sheila (Margaret's sister)

Following formal retirement, Les still spent some time working with produce harvesting with brother law, Peter, for Hunter Pack Limited.

He also scaled back his market garden operations, but continued to grow lines of runner beans and tomatoes in his green house.

Les had no formal training in engineering, but he was always thinking about how his work practices could be improved. Many hours were spent fabricating improvements to his machinery and implements.

His leisure interests extended to collecting and restoring vintage machinery and he was one of the founders of the Malpas Yesteryear Rally, where he served as a Committee member and Safety Officer for many years in the 1970's.

When he did have time off work, he used to enjoy fishing trips to the lakes in Wales, even venturing as far as Ireland with Brother George on a few occasions.

He was regarded as one of the last great local Malpas characters, always making time to speak to people and sharing a joke or two; the rudeness of which was proportional to how well he knew them.

He will be forever in the hearts and memories of many local people, who were fortunate enough to come into contact with Les during his lifetime.

Chris Whitehurst
12th April 2023