Tributes to 'a perfect gentleman'

RESPECTS have been paid to a well-known motor seller and village stalwart who died  suddenly.
Whorlton’s John Stanwix was chairman of the village parish council for many years and farmed High Grange, off the A67, for decades.
The former owner of Louis Smith garages died of a stroke last month aged 81. Mr Stanwix was born at Grange Farm, Whorlton, in March 1936, and went to Barnard Castle School.
He joined his father, George, on the family farm before marrying his wife of 47 years, Betty, in 1957.
The couple had two sons, David and Michael, before Mr Stanwix fulfilled his passion for motor cars by taking over Louis Smith Motors, in Galgate, in 1972. 
“He took over the family farm from his father,” said David. “It’s a long established farming family but he diversified – he was always interested in cars and tractors and he used to sell a few from the farm. I think it got out of control a little bit – he was selling more than he should have been from a farm so he got the chance to buy Louis Smith Motors.”
Running both the farm and the motor business took plenty of time, effort and help – a significant amount of which came from his team of long-serving staff.
“He could not have done it all without a lot of these people,” added David. “It’s a testament to him that they didn’t just stick around for a year or two – these people worked for him for 20 to 30 years.”
Two of those who stuck around were John Peddelty and Brian Atkinson. Mr Atkinson first came to Louis Smith Motors as a 16-year-old apprentice.
He said: “We used to call him ‘big dad’ when he was on his way – it was Mr Stanwix to his face. He was a gentleman and I really had an awful lot of respect for him because of what he did for me.
“He would lend you anything – back in the good old days you would borrow a Range Rover for banger racing and he wouldn’t want anything back in return.”
Mr Stanwix’s passion for selling cars took him to a car auction at Brighouse, near Leeds, every Thursday  with a fish, chips and peas never far away. His farming commitments often saw him disappear for hay time and lambing at High Grange before Michael took over the farm.
David added: “As a dad he was great, very even tempered and never tried to push me into farming or the motor business.”
A lover of travel but never one for going abroad, Mr Stanwix remarried in 2008 to Joyce after Betty died in 2004.
A fixture of village life, he served as auctioneer at the Whorlton Harvest Festival auction of promises and was parish chairman for more than 20 years.
The current chairman of Whorlton and Westwick Parish Council, George Stastny, said: “As far as I’m concerned John Stanwix was just a perfect gentleman.”