MAN WHEELS HIS WIFE

Taranaki Daily News, 15 July 1933, Page 18 (Supplement)

MAN WHEELS HIS WIFE

1 I — ” FORTY MILES TO A SHOP. r Mr. H. G. P. Baker, of South Shore,, . Blackpool, England, thinks nothing of > wheeling his wife in a bath-chair 40 i miles to a shop. i "There was a book we couldn t buy in Blackpool, so we walked over to t Preston,” Mr. Baker said recently. “But ; it’s 20 miles each way!” an interviwer i 1 gasped. And Mr. Baker nodded. “Just i I about. Nice walk for an afternoon—- • j with the bath-chair to make the pace.” , Mr. Baker is tall, wiry, tanned, with a mop of fair hair bleached by exposure ; ; to sun ahd wind. Mrs. Baker is slight, ■ l large-eyed, with long plaits of dark hair • wound round her temples. The bath- [ chair is a brown-wicker affair with solid ; tyres that has swung along the country ■ lanes for thousands of miles —over ■ ‘cobbles and grass, through storm and > sunshine. Mr. Baker and his wife are lovers oi the open air, but Mrs.' Baker’s health broke down and the cheery walks seemed a thing of the past. But Mr. Baker, determed that his,wife should still have her outings, bought .5 second-hand batih-

chair for 7s 6d. Laden with vacuum flasks, sandwiches, and an oil lamp this record-making trio have .traversed every road, and bypath for 40 miles round Blackpool. Mr. Baker’s usual pace is 40 miles a day. He can wheel for 20 miles without stopping. His record is a day's walk to New Mills (over 63 miles). “We did the Trough of Bowland,” Mr. : Baker said, “making Goosnagh our headi quarters. About 45 miles round’. •• a good road in parts . . . except where ■ it is only a trough road with a cliff i at the side. We got through the water- ; splash quite well . . . you’d have laugh- • ed if you’d seen me with my shoes and ; stockings off, wheeling the bath-chair . through the deepest part—down came a ’ shower of rain and we had water above i and below! At the highest point a . motor-car came along . . . .the people „ stared . . . took off their hats and shout- ■ ed: ‘Well done, sirl’ ” The Bakers have “wheeled it” to the Cat and Fiddle (the highest public house in England) and to the highest cottage in Lancashire. i One of these days, says Mr.' Baker, : who is a Londoner, he may wheel his ' Lancashire wife to London, stopping for the night. ' “We could do it nicely in a week, ne said. “We shouldn’t expect to do 60 mites every day . • * just a nice easy : 40 or even less.” -- -■ •