Significant People

About

A Hebridean Croft. This is one of my earliest paintings. We went camping in the Outer Hebrides in the 1970s, and took a photo of this croft which sits on a cliff top above Uig, the port on the Isle of Skye used by the local ferry company

The true artist will let his wife starve, his children go barefoot, his mother drudge for his living at seventy, sooner than work at anything but his art. George Bernard Shaw – Man and Superman.

Freelance writing. Started writing for CAD User magazine in 1999 and am still churning the stuff out. I edit both CAD User and Construction Computing which are basically the same but read by different people in the construcioj industry - Architects and Project Managers, I have probably written about 2,000 articles - the equivalent of a medium sized novel every year for 25 years - for the magazines on CAD , architecture, virtual reality, AI, and related subjects. You can read some of them here: The pieces with no byline were more than likely written by me. www.caduser.com www.constructioncomputing.com

David and Jan’s Big Adventure In 1998 we bought a derelict barn in Washford, Somerset. Seemed a good idea at the time. We spent a couple of years doing it up, and then ran it as a B&B. You can see the before and afters here. We had to raise the floor 9 inches, as well, and we mahhandled 4 20 foot 9 x 6 inch oak beams into place.

It needed a bit of TLC

David Chadwick – Who He? Early years spent in Army schools in Germany and Cyprus. Great fun, but lousy education and had no idea what a University was till I left school. After drifting around for a bit a pal suggested I become a teacher. Scraped in on the back of a bunch of ‘O’ levels and taught for a year but hated it. So I signed up instead. Got a Short Service Commision, and spent the next six years in on Salisbury Plain, the backstreets of the Bogside, in Londonderry, and Germany. Having played round with a very early computer in the back of a Landrover on the artillery ranges, I was delighted to be able to gravitate into the computer industry. I sold some of the First Apple II computers in the UK and was persuaded to produce an Apple magazine, Windfall, by a publisher in Stockport, and ran the First dedicated computer exhibition – Apple ‘82 - in Slough. I moved on selling high-powered array processors and researching the nascent colour printing industry. It was in 1998 that things took a major turn. I was diagnosed with Cancer, just as we had arranged to buy a wreck of a 16 th Century group of cottages on a farm which was being used as a pigsty and cider press. We took it over and I spent the next year on remission after undergoing several bouts of chemo working as a labourer on the site. The physical exercise appeared to have cleared any sign of the cancer, and gradually Jan was able to move in full time, after learning to climb the ladder to the rudimentary bedroom. You can see before and afters on this page. We ran it as B&B for a number of years, but in 2019 we downsized and moved to Minehead. In the meantime, needing to start earning again, I became a freelance writer and editor of CAD User magazine and Construction Computing. 25 years later I am still working for the magazines, and it looks like it ‘ain’t gonna stop’ soon. Nor do I want it to, as the industry is well embedded in the 21sr century, and I get to keep up to date with the latest technologies – AI, virtual and augmented reality, Digital Twins, drones, 5D construction management, as well as addressing the climate crisis, and the mitigating steps that the industry is taking to reach Net Zero Carbon. Hasn’t stopped me writing and painting, though, but the painting has slowed down a bit. As you can see, I have a book due for release very shortly – Kicking the Bucket – and a couple of others in the stocks. You can keep up to date with me on my ThQb Blog on this website. Please feel free to add your two-penn'orth.

I spent six years as an officer in the Royal Artillery, and got to play around with these beasties. The gun with the overlarge barrel is an M107 self- propelled howitzer. I ran the Regt driving school for the Alvius Stalwart and other vehicles.

My first office. - It was 9 months before the window went in.

First floor, with the cider press sticking up through the floor.

Stone built fireplace in the sittiung room

Rear of the building which had to be completely rebuilt for the kitchen and dining room.

We downsized 4 years ago and moved into a large semi in the West Country, buiilt around 1910, and which came with a wisteria covered hayloft, which now houses my office and studio.