About me

My name is Patrick. I am a scouser by birth, of a French mother and a ‘mongrel’ father (English/Irish/Spanish/French). I spent my childhood in the Wirral, attending Pensby Secondary Modern School, Calday Grange Grammar School in West Kirby and Flintshire College of Technology in Connahs Quay where I studied for a HND in Business Studies. I later obtained an honours degree in Psychology at the Open University.

After buying my GT6 in 1980 I joined the Triumph Sports Six Club (TSSC), later becoming their Publicity Secretary. When my local North Wales Area Organiser stood down I took over his role until my marriage in 1987. I am now also a member of Club Triumph. Over the years I have also part-owned a Spitfire MklV (with my first wife) and a GT6 Mk3 which I bought (together with a fellow member of the TSSC) for £50 to break up. A few parts of this car have found their way into my current car.

I started creating websites in the late 1990s writing the pages in HTML in Notepad and uploading by FTP. Then, after completing a course in Web Design at the OU I started using WYSIWYG programs like Expression Web 4 and Dreamweaver. Now I have migrated to WordPress.

After training at British Steel (formerly John Summers & Sons) in Shotton, I worked as an Industrial Engineer first for Dunlop, Rubber Plastics Division (now Polybush) in Wrexham, then in Leicester where I worked for Dunlop, Polymer Engineering Division (makers of Metalastik bonded rubber to metal components including GT6 rubber ‘doughnuts’) and later T J Brooks (the aeronautical fasteners part of GKN, now SPS). Then I moved back to North Wales to work in the family manufacturing business which I eventually took over as MD. I created an e-commerce website for the business and and won an award from the Craftsman magazine (now craft&design) for Craft Site Of The Year 2001.

When I sold this business, after over 25 years, I became an Accountant! I have been happily married to Liz for over 35 years, and we have three children. Although I am now retired, I keep busy with my children, grandchild, and my hobbies: photography, old cameras, classic cars, and of course websites! After running sites for my business I created websites for my photography, GT6 and also a website for a friend who had a narrowboat hire business.

I have been a GT6 fan since the 1970s when I first became aware of the car. My first car was a 1956 Standard 8 (forerunner to the GT6) which I wrote off after just 6 weeks of ownership. I used to hate them, but letting my father buy a ‘car’ for me unseen (on my behalf, I still had to pay him the princely sum of £100 for it) I became a proud if reluctant owner back in 1968. I came to love the car, and it was an exceptionally good example, having had one owner from new, and apart from needing a good polish was immaculate. Unfortunately I wrote it off after only 6 weeks of ownership. Below is a picture of me in my ‘first car’, annotated by my Mum.

I replaced it with a Triumph Herald Coupe. I purchased the GT6 in March 1980 and have had it ever since, apart from a brief period in 1982 when it was stolen in Luton where I was staying with a friend. Fortunately it was recovered by the police, none the worse for having travelled for 100s of miles!