David Rimmer is a working farmer who lives on and farms his own land. It is located in our parish and it's known as Marsh Farm. David, a bachelor, lives with his mother, Margaret, who is 90 years old. It is a mixed farm. He grows wheat, oats, carrots and asparagus; and he tends a beef herd of cattle.

David was born in Formby (in Elbow Lane) as were his father and grandfather, so he qualifies with ease as a sand grounder; and he was a pupil at our own St Luke's CE primary School when it was much smaller than it is today and when Miss Cubbon was the Headmistress. He comes from a farming family and he first worked for Richard Formby as a farm worker. Then, Richard Formby sold the land which David now owns and farms to Formby Land Company who later sold it to David.

He and his mother have many memories of our church and parish. They say the changes have been unbelievable and the rate of change has increased dramatically. They remember when there were but a few houses and many fewer residents in our parish and are amazed at the growth since the end of WW2. They single out the 60s as the start of this massive growth due to Formby becoming a commuter town for Liverpool business people.

Their farm land has been the scene for matters of moment. During WW2, this land, approaching the dunes, was used as a decoy, to persuade German bomber aircraft that it was, in fact, Liverpool. Searchlights were installed on his farm land and the soldiers manning them were billeted in what is now his farm house.

There were times, happily few, when enemy aircraft flew overhead and dropped their bombs close by. David remembers one bomb which didn't go off and which is still buried near the Alt river. He remembers, more vividly, Firwood House, where the Formby family then lived now long gone which was close to Shorrocks Hill, getting a direct hit; luckily the people in it at the time were unharmed although badly shaken.

Margaret, David's mother, told me how she had a grandstand view of the fires raging over Liverpool at the height of the bombing.

More recently, his land faced a battle to be converted to an 18 hole golf course. A group of businessmen wanted to buy it for this purpose. As it turned out, their idea failed to get planning permission.

The Rimmers, with the Aindows, Maudsleys, and Golbournes, are among the best known and remembered Formby families. David told me that it was the Aindows who manned the first Formby Life Boat (and almost the whole original Formby Brass Band) and which achieved fame and wider recognition as a tug of war team they were so huge and strong!

One of Margaret's sharpest memories of our church is about a former Vicar, the late Rev Norman Cowden. He was such a fanatical Everton football supporter that he refused to have any weddings or other services held or arranged whenever the Everton football team was playing at home.

Outside farming, David's passion is motor bikes. He has been travelling to the IOM every year without fail since 1960 to watch the TT races and to ride himself over the world famous circuit. He even went over at the height of the foot and mouth disease even though the TT was cancelled just to breathe in the atmosphere there would have been. His all time hero is Mike Hailwood.

Thank you David, and Margaret, for sharing some of your memories of our parish - and a little beyond.