John Harold Critchley “Harold”

“Memories are precious they don’t go away, we think of you always and not just today”

Harold sadly passed away at home on 13th January 2022 aged 87 years.

Beloved husband of Joan. Devoted Father, Grandfather & Poppa.

His funeral took place on Wednesday 2nd February at Crewe Crematorium Chapel at 2.45pm

Kind donations in memory of Harold are going to The British Heart Foundation & Diabetes UK.

For further information and to offer your condolences, please  telephone our Funeral Home on 01270 584447

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Harold was loved and respected by all who had the pleasure of knowing him. A
family man, good friend, neighbour, colleague and a member of both Haslington &

Crewe United Reform Church and Middlewich United Reform Church, he was the
organist for over seventy-two years. He never sought any renumeration for any
event he played at, he was immensely generous with his time and love.
But first and foremost, Harold was totally dedicated to his family, a beloved husband
to Joan, devoted dad to Karen, dear father-in-law to Keith, and a doting grandpa to
Rebecca, her husband Carl and Joe, Poppa to his great grandchildren Ryan, Amelia.
Ava and Jacob, the family whose love he so depended on and whose love he
returned in full measure.
Joan and Karen spoke of Harold’s character with pure pride. He was a gentle
gentleman, a principled man who liked a nice clean shirt and tie every day until his
later years when he was a little more casual. He expected good manners at the
dining table and a look would be enough, he never had to raise his voice. Becky
would love to torment Grandpa by putting her elbows on the table, laughing about it
with her gran then quickly putting them down before he looked!
He was kind, caring, and loving and firmly believed in not going to bed on an
argument. Joan and he were two halves to a perfect whole, different personalities
but complemented each other perfectly. Karen was a daddy’s girl, the apple of his
eye and the best of friends. From a very young age, she and her dad always went
Christmas shopping to places like Manchester, Liverpool and Sheffield, with lunch
out and years later, Karen loved to return the treat and when out with his family, he
never let the girls walk next to the road.
Karen would only ever let her daddy brush or comb her hair because he was ever so
gentle. Mum would tap her hard on the head if she was complaining and Becky also
knew who to go to for her hair brushed.
He was the most adoring Grandpa and Poppa, with immense patience. Becky
remembers she stayed every Thursday night and he had to get down on all fours
pretending to be a horse. She would sit on his back, kick him and off he would trot to
her bedroom, neigh then chuck her off onto the bed and when recently reminiscing
about those times, she told grandpa in his advancing years, she would have to take
him instead.
If she ever asked her mum dad or and anything and they didn’t know, she always
used to say, “I’ll ask Grandpa, he knows everything!” and he usually did.
He and Joe loved playing with his train set and loved their train trips to the railway
museum at York and no matter how much Grandpa tried to persuade Joe to go
somewhere else, it had to be York! Joe looked forward to fish and chips with gran
and grandpa every Wednesday and he loved a McDonalds with Grandpa teasing
him it was a grumpy meal!
He was recently showing his great grandchildren how to do calligraphy, he had all
the pens and extremely talented.

Harold had an incredibly dry sense of humour, with a razor-sharp wit at times and off
the cuff remarks
Special Memories of Harold
Welcomed into the world in 1934, it seems that Harold was born in Horwich, but his
family must have moved to Crewe.
After leaving Haslington School at the age of fifteen, Harold started as an apprentice
at Signal and Telegraph on Gresty Road and continued to work for British Rail until
he retired from his supervisory role at the age of fifty-eight.
From a young age, Harold was an exceptionally talented musician and when he
applied for the role of church organist at Haslington, they weren’t keen on giving him
the job as he was only fifteen and probably wouldn’t last!
He played the Accordion at the BBC At the tower ballroom in Blackpool, and his
claim to fame was meeting Coronation Street Legend, Ena Sharples and Steptoe’s
Wilfred Pickles both musical people. When the legendary organist Reggie Dixon
came off stage for a while, he asked Harold to play for the audience.
Harold met his childhood sweetheart at Sunday School, their night out was normally
at the youth club – with strict instructions – home for 9pm! They always enjoyed
cycling together and when they went to the cinema, they normally walked home to
save money. Joan told me they got engaged at eighteen and exchanged their
lasting vows at Haslington United Reform Church, Congregational as it was then, on
the day before his twenty first birthday.
They started married life in their first home, a house called ‘Rivington’ very posh for a
young couple starting out in life, on Clay Lane Haslington although money was tight
but just one month later Harold was conscripted to do his National Service, initially
stationed in Borden and then the last six months, thankfully he was at High Leigh,
Knutsford and able to cycle home. And whilst in the army he was happy to play the
organ at the church service as it got him out of Sentry Duty!
When Karen was on the way, Harold and Joan moved to Wells Avenue where they
were blessed with their only daughter and had many fond memories of subsequent
years with good neighbours and friends.
They enjoyed family holidays to Spain and Italy on the overnight sleeper with Karen
and Harold normally very seasick! They also visited many other European countries
then venturing in later years to the other side of the globe to places like Canada,
America and to Australia visiting Joan’s cousin in Perth then travelling by train across
to Sydney. They returned several years later and one particular Sunday, in Alice
Springs, Harold was interested in the organ, the superintendent asked him to play
because the organist hadn’t arrived.

He was exceptionally practical and could mend almost anything, watches, electrical
items, he was a master at DIY often with Joan as his labourer or he and his good
mate Lennie would help each other out installing central heating and building their
conservatories.
Harold was an expert with plumbing, plastering, making windows, gates, fire grates,
he built his own garage, installed their bathroom suite as well as Karen and Keith’s
kitchens and bathroom suites and even put one in just after having surgery!
He converted the downstairs room at Haslington Church into a recreation area for
the Coffee Pot and playgroup and in recent years he created a baptism display and
and tiled the kitchen at Middlewich Church.
He built a magnificent full sized Theatre Organ and often accompanied children
playing the violin at exam time.
He loved playing for and accompanying the opera singer Linda Richardson at many
of her concerts after becoming good friends and Linda would say he was very much
a father figure.
His creativity and artistic talents were endless, he baked light, moist sponge cakes
and filled them with cream, incredibly popular with everyone and made melt in the
mouth cream horns.
He and Joan made a formidable team in the garden, winning ‘Best Garden in
Sandbach’ three times with a kaleidoscope of colours, an array of stunning flowers
and plants and the cultivated all their own plants and grew an abundance of veg.
They are a truly wonderful family and he was the rock on which happiness was
created.

May he rest in peace.