Bernard Law

Bernard Law was born in, and has lived, around Ravenstonedale all his life. When he was five, his parents settled at Crocks Beck when they started their own rented farm. Attending Kirkby Stephen's Primary and later, Grammar School, he mostly enjoyed his football, but was able to leave with four '0' levels and four CSEs. He was already playing for Lunesdale United.. He now wanted a car, money of his own, independence, and so he went for the first job available - machine setting at the Bobbin factory, setting up and running wood turners - making anything that you can turn out of wood in bulk; file handles, brush heads, and working indoors in a noisy dusty environment. The job satisfaction came through setting up new jobs for precision turning and organising orders to go out on time. Looking back it was long hours of dreary work but he enjoyed mixing with the dozen or so of fellow workers. Promoted to supervisor after four years, he then had to see the planks of wood through to the finished article efficiently. Redundancy came with a worsening financial situation in 1992. This time after 12 years at the Bobbin factory,

Bernard wanted to be out and about. He joined an insurance company as an agent after 6 months' training. He enjoyed being outside more, and meeting customers, the "buzz" of making a sale, and the experience of being able to give the useful and fitting advice that he was trained to give. But the down side was the colleagues and managers who were greedy, and rather than considering the needs of their clients, primarily looked after themselves, their jobs, their managers' jobs and their sales figures. By this time, Bernard had his wife and two children to consider so he stayed put, and eventually left after seven and a half years as 'top agent' having achieved much satisfaction in doing deals that were in the best interests of the client.

To relieve this pressure, he started planning, preparing for and creating the Riverside Golf Course, 'to recover some control in his life' he says. So Weasdale Nurseries was his next stop. He loves being outdoors without the regular Sunday afternoon dread of the coming week; no responsibility, no needless meetings 50 miles away at a moment's notice... just fresh air, physical exercise and your very own time starting at 4.30 each afternoon. This fits in with the Golf Course. Now his "buzz" comes from a hobby that attracts deserved compliments.Bernard still loves his football and snooker. He has been a referee for five years and for the last two has been an assistant ref. on the Unibond league (N. of England.) He has had his dramatic moments too, dressed in a frock in the village concerts!

His family home was a Christian one, so, always a chapel-goer, with Rendezvous and the Young People's Bible Study in the background he felt his final Christian 'pieces of the jig-saw' coming together when he was about 20. He says that knowing God helped him through the insurance job; faith, he says has kept everything together...giving him the strength to achieve that "buzz"....he feels thankful for his life, is looking forward to the future, and if you hear a strange noise, it'll be Bernard singing choruses under cover of his mower.