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David Ware Hoyle
IN a world where so much is just surface gloss, David Hoyle was a Yorkshireman of unfathomable depth.
From his resonant bass voice, employed to such good effect as a choral singer, to his remarkable artistic ability, explored afresh in his "retirement", everything about David ran deep.
Born in Hessle, in the East Riding, David was transplanted to Cowling, in the West Riding, at just three weeks old, and it was here that he began putting down roots. His talent for art emerged at school and he won a scholarship to study art in nearby Keighley and from there to the prestigious Leeds College of Art.
His studies progressed well, but were halted by the ambitions of a failed artist, Adolf Hitler. In 1942 David volunteered for the Royal Navy, spending most of the next four years at sea, including serving on the perilous North Atlantic Convoys.
Wartime experience broadened his horizons too far to contemplate a return to the four walls of a classroom on his demobilisation in 1946.
Instead he found a job as an "improver" with a joiner in Cowling, where his innate artistry found a new outlet. Training and natural ability turned David into a skilled carpenter and cabinet maker.
Eventually he started his own business in Barnoldswick, one of the far flung corners of Yorkshire hived off to Lancashire under the 1974 local government boundary changes.
David remained unmistakeably a Tyke, marked out by his rich Yorkshire dialect, peculiar to Cowling. When he later moved further into Lancashire to Foulridge, near Colne, he quipped, with a wry smile, that he was "engaged in missionary work!"
Another Yorkshire passion is cricket and David was a lifelong devotee, learning his arithmetic as a scorer for Cowling Cricket Club when just a boy, later serving as a player, trustee and president of the village club. After the war, he was one of six players who each chipped in a week's wage to get it back on its feet.
Long after the sun set on his playing days, David remained an ardent supporter.
Another seam running deep through David's life was his love of music, both as a listener and performer, his sonorous bass voice finding a welcome home with the award-winning Nelson Arion Male Voice Choir, where he sang for many years.
Yet his life was not all harmony and he carried deep wounds. His first marriage, to Dorothy, ultimately failed and later he would bear the untimely deaths of both their sons, Richard and Stephen,
David's beloved Vera, became his soulmate for 25 years after they met through his job.
David also found tremendous joy in his new family, daughters Margaret, Susan and Janet, and later six grandchildren.
It was Vera who encouraged David to take up his brushes again on retiring at the age of 60. The ability had never left him and the coming years saw David the artist develop a unique style, his pictures in great demand.
Working in watercolours, he produced pieces of incredible detail, often of his favourite Dales scenes.
The eye for detail and desire for accuracy which served him throughout his working life were now brought to bear on his paintings.
Scenes from his own past in a joiner's shop and building site captured life before the advent of modern machinery and earned a weighty commission form a national stone company to render a similar scene of quarrying as it used to be.
This was unfamiliar territory though, and David only accepted the commission after extensive research with old quarrymen and only delivered the finished picture to hang in the boardroom after those same quarrymen gave it "the nod". Accuracy was all.
As well as gracing walls as far away as Australia, David's work was published in many magazines and journals and used to illustrate several book covers. His annual August Bank Holiday exhibition and sale at Bolton Abbey Village Hall became a fixture in the Dales diary and ran for 10 years until advancing years and failing health began to take their toll.
Other interests, all pursued with vigour, included travel, architecture, history, poetry and philosophy.
He also became a key member of Cowling Moonrakers, the local history group formed in his home village, where his excellent long-term memory proved an invaluable asset. A selection of David's paintings can be seen on the Moonrakers' website (www.moon-rakers.co.uk).
Yet his deepest passion was Vera and her sudden death in 2005 was a hammer blow. Although he recovered to some extent, with support from family and friends, David knew he would not be whole again until they were reunited.
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Weather for Yorkshire
Saturday 26 May 2012
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Temperature: 8 C to 21 C
Wind Speed: 17 mph
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Temperature: 9 C to 22 C
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