Larry Angel
Larry is currently chair of Woodthorpe Development Trust, which started as a small community project to clear a local fishpond, and is currently one of the most successful development trusts in the sector. Last year the Trust turned over more than three quarters of a million pounds and has spawned two other successful social enterprises: extended schools advisers 3 Consulting and Get Hooked on Life, a market leading social network bringing together young people and positive activities and opportunities.
Larry was a ‘war baby’, born in Richmond Surrey in 1943, he was adopted at three months old but never knew it. He remembers vividly the day of his 18th birthday, standing stunned in his kitchen while his father said, “I have something to tell you…”
At 7, Larry had been sent to a boarding school in Castleford, an experience he did not enjoy, then when he was 13 he was moved to a secondary modern school where considering himself not an academic sort, he left at 15 with no qualifications. Joining the Army Royal Engineers which he enjoyed, Larry was medically discharged at 18 . He stayed in the area, becoming an apprentice tailor at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst to make uniforms and suits for army officers, then was tempted to make more money by embarking upon what was to be a lifetime’s career in retail.
Larry recalls digs in Maidstone where one night, a pal asked how he fancied making a new start ‘Up North”. Shortly after they spent one night at a pub in Nottingham, then took a bus to Lady’s Bridge in Sheffield, alighting opposite the Whitbread’s brewery. Larry and his pal walked across the road and in a brief diversion from his retail career, took the first two jobs they were offered: mash room and barrel room. His pal clearly didn’t enjoy life in the barrel room, because after a month he skipped out of the digs and left Larry to pick up his rent…he has never been seen again!
After a few months, Larry returned to what he knew, tailoring, staring work at Sheffield legend, Hepworth’s, where he met his wife Anne, to whom he has now been married for 44 years. Shortly after the birth of their first son at 23, Larry contracted mumps and meningitis which was nearly fatal and left him with life-altering epilepsy. With no come backs or compassion for his illness, Larry’s employer sacked him for taking time off after his fits, but another great Sheffield institution, Cockaynes then Schofields, stepped in to offer him a post which Larry remembers fondly as more like a hobby than a job.
When the business sadly folded, Larry received a call from the manager at Cole Brothers, but did not find the job held enough autonomy to keep him there. A spell in the health service followed, helping those with disabilities develop sufficient life skills to try independent living. In their house on Bernard Road, Larry remembers the enormous sense of satisfaction he gained by helping two young men who had been in hospital all their lives, one spending all day rocking on a bean bag, go to the pub, shopping and on holiday for the first time. Sadly, his health career was cut short when Larry badly injured his neck when lifting one of the young men into the bath.
He felt he was on the scrap heap in his forties, he recalls. Not one to dwell in self pity however, Larry used this opportunity to go back into education for the first time since he had left school at 15. Starting a course on English at MATREC, the training centre on the Manor near where he lived on the Woodthorpe estate, Larry moved onto maths then computer and other skill certificates. Job advice was also available at MATREC and resulted in a post in a finance office, which after a career spent dealing with people face to face, Larry hated! At 59, Larry took early retirement, but continued to volunteer with the police service as an ‘appropriate adult’. They sit with young people in police custody when their parents cannot or will not, and as a lay visitor throughout the 80s and 90s was responsible for checking on the standard of custody suites. Larry met some wonderful people during this time, as well as becoming aware of the tragic cases of lost young people called in time and time again.
At this point, Larry’s world was once again about to shift. His wife was leafing through the Sheffield Star one evening, when she noticed an appeal for locals to help clear out the local fishpond. At first, Larry admits he was simply not interested, but Anne would not give up, and he finally got involved and helped shift seven tons of rubbish. The fishponds project gathered steam in the local community and the fledgling Woodthorpe Forum started work on more small projects with the aim of making people’s lives better.
A two day course at Northern College helped the group to become constituted- something none of them wanted at the time, but was necessary to bid for resources. In 1998, the Forum was successful in attracting its first grant of £105,000 for three staff and resources over three years in response to a careful survey of residents’ views on priorities entitled ‘The Forgotten Estate’.
Larry remembers the feeling on the estate at that time was of being overlooked by the needs of Manor and Castle, the next ward who appeared to get all the funding. Undeterred, the Forum kept knocking on the funding door and the European SRB boundary was extended to include Woodthorpe for regeneration and resources for the next ten years.
Since becoming the Forum’s chair, Larry has been the chair of governors at Woodthorpe primary school and on the board of the voluntary umbrella bodies Offer and the Urban Forum, services to the community and wider Sheffield area which were formally recognized in 1995 when Larry was awarded an MBE.
It’s a family affair for Larry and his wife, he recollects. Not only did Anne and the children accompany him to the Palace to receive the honour, but Anne is herself the Trust’s company secretary and a governor at the school. Larry is the first to say he could not have done it without her.
Asked what are the greatest achievements of his time with the Trust, and in typical fashion, Larry’s thoughts immediately turn to people.
Ryzard came to the Trust three times for a job. He was a chef with no qualifications at all in the kind of work we do, but the third time he came knowing he lived on the estate and was so keen, I really felt we should give him a chance. What a great decision! He has done a brilliant job and lives for his work. The Trust gave him an opportunity and he has certainly made the best of it.
Chris Harris handled the Trust’s finance until recently. She initially came for an interview for the job, but was so nervous, she could hardly speak- it was awful. However, the person set on turned out to be unsuitable, so when they left after three months, they gave Chris a chance. Since then, she has done her exams and come on leaps and bounds.
The Trust’s late chief executive Karl Barton is Larry’s final pick. He laughs as he remembers, Karl came for a job interview and frightened him to death- he said no chance! Larry concedes he was talked out of it though, and it was the best thing that ever happened to the Trust. Karl’s expertise and contacts got the Trust through doors they couldn’t have done before and raised their profile significantly. Over his five years steering the organization, Karl changed the way the Trust does things as funding dried up to keep the organization sustainable. Two other social enterprises have been developed to date. 3 Consulting supported extended schools provision and Get Hooked on Life is running thousands of hours of positive activities for young people through a leading safe, bespoke social network site for 8-18s.
Concluding, Larry admits if it hadn’t been for his wife spotting that first story in The Star, none of this would have happened.
For more information, please contact:
Larry Angel - Chair, Woodthorpe Development Trust 0114 2654165 www.woodthorpedt.co.uk
Profile distributed by Faye Smith at Keep your Fork marketing consultancy
Telephone: 07985 038265 email: faye@keepyourfork.co.uk
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