A Profile of Geoff Squire

GEOFF Squire is one of the many unsung Arundel heroes. Residents here for over thirty years, he and his wife Carol were stalwarts of the retail scene for the first twenty of them.

Born in a modest house in West London – now he notes worth over £1million – he was one of very few local boys to go to St Clement Danes Grammar School. When the family moved to Highgate his father, a butcher, ran a shop there and the family lived above it.

In 1961 after his two year conscription into the RAF, he became Company Secretary for a group of African companies

Geoff started work as a Management Trainee at Sainsbury’s and met his first wife there. In 1961 after his two year conscription into the RAF, he became Company Secretary for a group of African companies which included African Metals Corporation and the Electricity Supply Company of SA, based in the Strand.

It was a very conservative environment where writing zeros linked together instead of separately or wearing a red tie ruffled feathers! After five years he moved to Youngs Seafoods, part of the Ross Group. He joined as Office Manager and then became the Accountant and stayed for nearly 20 years. In 1976, he started a basic computer system network for the company. Responsible for everything from design to implementation, he really enjoyed the role.

Geoff and his first wife had a son, Tim, and two daughters, Trudi and Alison. The marriage broke down however during his time at Youngs. Later, in 1982, he met his current wife Carol, who he jokingly claims, ‘threw herself at him’. She was working as a Home Economist at Youngs and on Geoff’s birthday loaned him some glasses for the celebrations – the rest, as they say, is history!

From Youngs Geoff moved to Aquascutum as Business Systems Manager. While there he used his commuting time to embark on an Open University Humanities degree majoring in Art and Art History. ‘It was wonderful because it taught me to understand the basic stepping stones of Western culture – the journey through Greeks, Romans and the Renaissance etcetera. I’m so glad I did it – it opened up a whole new area to me.’ All was going well until 1988 when Aquascutum was sold to a Japanese company. The inevitable swathe of redundancies swept through the company and Geoff found himself in his 50’s without a job, which gave him the opportunity to reassess his life. His son Tim suggested this was the ideal opportunity to do what he’d always wanted to and run his own business.

It was a chance visit to Carol’s aunt, Angela Chadwick, who lived in Arundel that gave them the idea of running a restaurant. The Copper Kettle (now LG Café) was for sale and was run as a traditional tearoom. They decided to buy it and moved into a cottage on Maltravers Street. The tenure lasted 20 years from 1988 to 2002 during which time Geoff calculates Carol made 30,000 scones! Carol also opened a gift shop with a beauty and health theme called The Apothecary Store which was next door to the restaurant – so ‘Carol still didn’t get away from the scones!’. She ran the Store for five years.

‘In those days,’ Geoff recalls ‘you had to be a member of the Chamber of Commerce to get a parking space in Crown Yard so I duly joined’. He describes the Chamber at the time as ‘moribund’. The membership was dwindling and he, along with well-known Arundel resident Bill Beere, ‘effectively were the Chamber at that time. We had to build it back up’, which they did very successfully.

Geoff remembers, ‘Arundel was pretty dead at Christmas’. Lucy Ashworth (ex-Councillor and Mayor) was running her shop, Poppyfields – Bags of Style, at the time and she, along with others, came up with the idea of Arundel by Candlelight. Geoff thought it would be attractive to light up the town with Christmas trees, and having sold the idea to the shopkeepers, he put up 140 trees for the Millennium Christmas. The idea is of course still going strong today under the management of Ash Kent and his team of Elves! Geoff also introduced Easter and Christmas themed windows throughout the town, another idea which has returned in recent years.

Geoff was always such an enthusiastic and forward-thinking member of the Chamber.

Lucy remembers this time with great fondness. ‘Geoff was always such an enthusiastic and forward-thinking member of the Chamber. He was Treasurer and Vice Chairman of the Arundel Chamber of Commerce when I opened the shop in Castle Mews on Tarrant Street in 2002. James Stewart, from Zimmer Stewart Gallery, and I would often catch up with him on his walks round the town as he spoke to the many retailers and restaurants. He was so encouraging to the traders and was always keen to get involved in new marketing initiatives. With Carol in her shop in Tarrant Street as well, it really was a very social time and we all helped each other.’

The Copper Kettle was also a great source of work for many of the town’s teenagers over the years, working temporarily to earn pocket money.

The Copper Kettle was also a great source of work for many of the town’s teenagers over the years, working temporarily to earn pocket money. One of them, Charlie Waring’s daughter Emily, recalls:
‘Along with many other local kids in our early teens, I managed to secure my first weekend job there waiting tables, washing dishes or helping in the kitchen. Working at the CK was a rite of passage for many of us Arundel kids. Geoff ran a tight ship, but he and Carol taught us all many valuable lessons, including responsibility, the value of money, hard work, team work, how to make a good cuppa- to accompany a pretty awesome cream tea- invaluable life lessons! Whilst the hours were long, and work was pretty full on especially during the busy summer months, we were rewarded with good tips (the result of good training and high standards) and delicious lunches!’

They sold the restaurant and Geoff joined The Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust, ‘which suited me down to the ground.’

At 65 Geoff decided to retire from the business; ‘running a restaurant is a very, very hard work’. They sold the restaurant and Geoff joined The Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust, ‘which suited me down to the ground.’ He was there for six years which he enjoyed enormously but in 2007, at the age of 69, he suffered a heart attack. Having recovered, he decided to retire the following year.

Geoff and Carol have always been avid skiers although he is now no longer able to do it. He is also a talented painter and has some lovely examples of country scenes and of their much-loved spaniel, Millie. Geoff was a familiar figure in Tarrant Street walking her daily until she sadly died earlier this year.

Recently he has kept himself busy writing down his memories- ‘Watching buzz bombs go over, collecting warm shrapnel after a raid and hiding under the kitchen table during bombing raids,’ are just some of recollections he wants to share with his children and grandchildren.

Geoff is one of the many people who have made a great contribution to the life of Arundel.