Comedian Dave Allen did indeed visit Meltham in the 1970s – to interview Herbert Thorpe, the Prophet of Meltham, for a TV series about eccentrics.Clive Settle, of Radio Leeds who used to live in Meltham, recalled that his mum had met Dave Allen in the village.
The anecdote cropped up during a radio discussion about Britain’s finest comedians. But Clive didn’t know why Dave was there.
Several readers were quick to tell me.
The comedian made two documentary series in the 1970s: In Search of the Great Eccentric and Eccentrics At Play.
Matt Shaw said: “I used to live next door to Herbert Thorpe in Millmoor Road and, although I was only four at the time, my mum and myself met Mr Allen while he was enjoying a cigarette.”
Herbert got his name and reputation from the Biblical quotes he painted onto the side of his house and fence.
Herbert’s grandson, Mark Schofield, director of Schofield and Sons, of Linthwaite, says: “Herbert had a long-running planning dispute regarding a big fence that he erected around his fields and between his and the houses of his neighbours. The fence was painted black and he covered it, over a long period, with quotes from the scriptures, generally in the vein of ‘An eye for an eye’ – no namby pamby stuff.
“He hated ‘wrong uns’ and idleness. When he was in his 70s, with a big white beard and ramrod straight back, he walked up to Wessenden Head twice a day.
“Dave did a series on people who were eccentrics and granddad, who was known in the media as the Prophet of Meltham, was featured. Broadcasters from around the world came to film him.
“My dad, Carl, of J B Schofields scrapyard, sold him the wood for the fence and thought it was all hilarious, particularly as he agreed with a lot of his sentiments regarding workers and shirkers.”
Herbert, who died in 1978, was a very forceful character, says Mark.
“As kids, if we kicked our football into his field we went in like special forces to recover it without being seen.”
― calzino, Friday, 6 September 2019 23:07 (four years ago) link