THE late David Lodge was one of the most remarkable men I have ever met, and I am sure he would have thanked Paul Hepworth (Letters, July 4) for reminding us where Acomb ends and Holgate begins.
A dedicated fettler, David was into sustainability long before the term became fashionable, and he was an ingenious locksmith too.
He was equally au fait with computers, while most of us regarded the electric typewriter as tomorrow’s world, and as far as science could reach.
He will be remembered especially for his belief in locality. Holgate mattered to him, and with his camera he methodically recorded local history in the making.
Yet David was far from being meanly parochial. Once, sitting in his garden, I enquired what was the flag fluttering from his flagpole.
“The Yorkshire flag,” he replied firmly. I wondered if it were official, but dared not ask.
When a philistine council chief sought to deprive the residents of Acomb of their ancient right of access to Acomb Landing, it was David, armed with dusty documents, who took this unsuspecting Goliath to court and triumphed!
Still, his true monument remains, as Paul Hepworth stated, those frontier signs which proudly proclaim to all: “Holgate”.
William Dixon Smith, Welland Rise, Acomb, York.
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