WAEN SHEPHERD
Biography of a seven-year-old (1971-1979)
THINGS I LIKED
Doctor Who
I watched this
religiously every
Saturday
Star Wars
I’d only seen it once,
but the toys and comics
kept it alive
Marvel Comics
Bought these every
week, but didn’t
necessarily read them
Blackpool
My Gran took me there
for a week every August
Bank Holiday
Cats
As an only child, the
cats were my brothers
and sisters
2000 AD
Got this every week too
but it was good so I did
actually read it
Sweets
Probably spent about
10p a day on these, a
fortune back then
That’s me on the right there, dressed like a soldier. Except I’m wearing my Mum’s old girl
guides cap instead of a proper army one. And I’m carrying a stick, because my parents
wouldn’t let me play with guns. But none of that mattered to me. I was an army Captain and,
for the rest of the day, no one would be able to convince me otherwise.
NAME: Waen Origen Shepherd
BIRTHDATE: October 23rd 1971
BIRTHPLACE: Castleford, West Yorkshire, UK
SIBLINGS: None
CATS: Isis, Domino, Toby (deceased), Pepper
(missing)
LIKES: Doctor Who, Blake’s 7, Star Wars, Marvel
Comics, 2000 AD, writing, drawing, sweets, cats
DISLIKES: Football, dogs, climbing trees
FAVOURITE FOOD: Chicken, rissoles, baked beans
LEAST FAVOURITE FOOD: Kidney, liver, parsnips,
turnips, sprouts
FAVOURITE PLACE: Blackpool
INTELLIGENCE: 10
CREATIVITY: 10
PHYSICAL PROWESS: 3
GARY & JANET
My Mum & Dad. The people responsible for
spelling my name like that. A pair of young,
idealistic hippies who liked Jimi Hendrix and the
occult, who had a kid and got married (not quite,
but almost, in that order) when they were just 18
years old. For the first few years of my life, they
were amazing, loving parents, who never hit me
and always treated me with care and respect.
Mum helped me to learn to read and write. Dad
helped me to learn how to draw and how to
appreciate music. This is one of the few surviving
photos of them both together (mainly thanks to
Dad burning most of the others when they split
up in 1986).
RENE’E ATKINSON
My Gran, on my Mum’s side. Pronounced ‘reeny’
(to rhyme with ‘Houdini’). Her husband Bill had
suddenly passed away in the summer of 1971, a
few months before I was born. I don’t know if I
was a great replacement but I stayed with her
every weekend and she was, for many years,
probably my best friend. One of three siblings
(while Bill was one of twelve), she still lived in the
same house in Castleford that her parents had
bought in 1930. Took me on holiday to Blackpool
for a week every August.
MARY & JACK SHEPHERD
My grandparents on Dad’s side, who lived in
Durkar, a suburb of Wakefield. Mary thought she
was too young to be a grandmother, so I was
encouraged to call them Mary & Jack, much to
Jack’s dismay. Mary could be stern and scared
me sometimes when I was very young, but I got
to know her better as an adult and realised she
could be warm and funny too. Jack was a
sweetheart who longed for the easy life and
loved reading books about the Wild West. I miss
them both very much.
WAEN SHEPHERD: FACT FILE
HIS FAMILY
THINGS THEY LIKED
FUN FACTS!
•
My name ‘WAEN’ (pronounced ‘Wayne’) is apparently Ancient Egyptian for ‘one and
only’ and my middle name ‘ORIGEN’ is supposed to mean ‘born of light’ - but I’ve
found it quite difficult to verify this.
•
Although I was born fairly near my Gran’s house in the centre of Castleford, I spent
most of the first eight years of my life living on a council estate in Airedale, a
suburb of Castleford at the top of Queen’s Park Hill
•
Initially we lived in an upstairs flat at 14 Dove Drive, but I fell downstairs and split
my head open one day while trying to answer the door, causing my parents to
swap houses with a family who were living over the road at No 11. But that still
had stairs, and I fell down them too
•
I was a sickly child. By the time I was seven I had already had measles twice,
rubella once and several serious bouts of tonsillitis (which sadly didn’t result in my
tonsils being removed - they made me wait till I was 28 for that rare pleasure)
•
My first three school years were spent at Redhill Infant School (now sadly closed). I
didn’t attend the nursery, so didn’t start until I was four. Fortunately I’d had a bit of
practice at home so I was already reasonably good at reading and writing
PARENTAL JOB FACTS!
•
Both my parents were from a working class background but didn’t necessarily see
themselves as ‘working class’
•
They met at Castleford Grammar School and both studied for A-Level courses, but
Mum was the only one who took the exams, Dad having already dropped out by
then. He always told me it was a political act in defiance at the plans to turn the
school into a comprehensive, but it might also have something to do with the fact
that he had a kid on the way
•
Dad started out as a painter and decorator, then became a receptionist at the
Yorkshire Electricity Board, before getting a job at the coking plant in
Glasshoughton for a few years. When we moved to Fairburn, he had just started
working in the Time and Wages office at Wheldale Colliery, where he would
remain until it closed in 1987
•
Mum stayed at home looking after me until I was old enough to start school, then
got a part-time job at the Rowntree-Mackintosh sweet factory, just down the road
from Wheldale pit. Her own Dad had been the head foreman on the factory floor,
but the environment made him ill and contributed to his early death in 1971 at
the age of 56
Ancient Egypt
Mum and Dad made up
my name from bits of
Old Egyptian words
The Occult
It was the 1970s and
they were kids. This
stuff was all the rage
Jimi Hendrix
My Dad’s favourite
musician and biggest
inspiration
Led Zeppelin
Another band they
liked - goes with the
territory I suppose
Motor Bikes
Dad loved bikes and
built his own sidecar
for me to travel in
CASTLEFORD
Castleford
Its Wikipedia entry -
feel free to add my
name to it
Castleford Tigers
The local rugby team,
which I know nothing
about
Worst Towns in
Britain
See where Cas came on
the list!
Old Pictures
A slide show of pics
from the Castleford of
yesteryear
Henry Moore
Castleford’s most
celebrated artist
Things to Do
Go shopping! Stand on
the bridge! Look at the
sculpture!
Pram Race
Castleford’s Annual
Pram Race 1962
Dashcam
Some bloke drives
around Castleford in
1985
The Big Town Plan
Kevin McCloud
attempts to improve
Cas on Channel 4
Ten Years On
What effect, if any, did
the Big Town Plan
have?
TERM 1
A day-by-day account of
Waen’s first term at
Fairburn School
ENGLISH 1
A few tentative steps
into a world of terrible
writing
Great Space Battles
Three mighty empires
take their first steps
into outer space
Waen Shepherd 2
Waen’s heroic antics in
the far-flung future of
2007 AD!
Ward’s 7
John Ward and his band
of rebels fight the evil
Federation
Superman the Movie
Souvenir programme
from when I went to
the pictures with Louise