The cellmates who became soulmates
BACk in the summer of 1964, as an 18-year-old motorcyclist, I met a lovely 17-year-old girl called Sylvia, who was happy to climb aboard as my pillion passenger.
Two months into our friendship, Sylvia told me she had been invited to visit relatives in Warminster. She had mentioned me and they were more than happy to meet me and able to give me a room, too.
We set off on a sunny afternoon after work. I had no qualms about getting to Warminster before dark. My well-maintained 650 BSA Gold Flash would be in its element. What could go wrong? We soon found out. A wobble on the back suggested a soft tyre, quickly confirmed. I had the tools and repair kit to fix it, or so I thought. Delving into my tool bag for the pump, I realised I’d forgotten it.
Sylvia was very patient, watching her beau scratching his head for Plan B. We had passed a petrol station about a mile back. off we trotted, me rolling and carrying the wheel in turn. If Sylvia was shaking her head in despair at all this, she was in hysterics when I went sprawling over the wheel, which was difficult to control. We made it to the petrol station, successfully inflated the tyre and continued our journey. our troubles over? no, it was going to get much worse. Past midnight, as we entered Tewkesbury, the tyre deflated again. We decided we would look for somewhere to stay and buy a new inner tube in the morning. We roamed around without seeing a soul or a B&B. We came across a police station and I banged on the door, to no avail. Defeated, we slumped on the step. A little Mini police van cruised up and two big bobbies squeezed their way out of it. They shook their heads at any suggestion of accommodation at that hour. But the older one said: ‘We can put you in a cell for the night.’ We looked at each other, nodded and agreed. ‘Are you married?’ said the older one. ‘no,’ we said.
‘Well, we’ll have to put you in separate cells,’ was his matterof-fact reply. ‘We will also be out on patrol again and will need to lock the cell doors.’ I had to watch as my girlfriend of two months was locked into a police cell, with myself in the one adjacent.
Did our relationship survive my teenage ineptitude? Three daughters, eight grandchildren and a great-grandchild later, we celebrated our 57th wedding anniversary in December.