Richmond Park Pays Tribute To Barry Day

After 42 years working in the park

Barry Day on his digger - photo credit: Zdenek Kratky

It was very unusual when the Park’s principle machinery operator ‘Big Barry’ did not turn up for work on Thursday 17th December. He started working in the Park at 17 and for the next 42 years ‘wild horses’ couldn’t keep him away. He once said that he developed his love of outdoor work at school in rural Sussex where he learnt land-based skills.

He had a natural aptitude for anything mechanical and offered his skills and experience to anyone with car problems or re-build projects. His knowledge of 1950’s ‘Little Grey Fergie’ tractors was exemplary having driven and repaired them as a boy.

He had an encyclopaedic knowledge of the Park and would always know where drains would be blocked, when a pond was last de-silted and how every path was constructed. Right up to his final days he often worked past his official clocking-off time and came in at weekends if he could find a job or two that needed his attention.

Barry was a defiantly cheerful, charismatic man and always had time to chat to colleagues and the public. His care free approach to life and anecdotal stories about ‘Park-life’ made him popular with all – a large man and an even larger personality.

Children were guaranteed a reciprocal wave from underneath his thick mop of hair, inside his passing tractor or Big Yellow Digger. He understood how the little things in life brought the most joy to people.

The Park is left impoverished without Barry and his absence leaves a quiet numbness that compares to the earliest morning of deep snow. He is deeply missed.

Adam Curtis
Assistant Manager. Richmond Park.

December 24, 2009