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near the machinery. I began picking out bad onions and potatoes from the good ones - sitting in
this pit full of stinking onions and stinking potatoes and picking out the bad ones and putting
them to one side... From there I graduated to the job of unpacking cardboard boxes of supplies
and putting the items on the racks - old ones at the front, new ones at the back - and
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Len Honeycombe died of a heart attack in 1973. But he never fully recovered from his nervous
breakdown and the events of 1954. His confidence was impaired as well as his mind: he felt less
able to cope.
He was 50 in October 1956. Although he continued to supervise the two farm machinery
businesses for another 14 years, during which he also began selling cars as well as trucks, his
interest in these entreprises waned as his certainty in himself and his mental health declined, the
latter veering between moments of elation and paralysing negativity. He became manic-
depressive; and although Ethel, Alma and John became experts at calming him down or bucking
him up, he was occasionally difficult to control. 'There was no telling what he would do when he
was on a high,' said John. 'He might want to buy this or sell that. The business was affected in
some ways.'
Every year Len and Ethel went on a trip, mainly to Melbourne or New Zealand, these trips
coinciding with yearling sales. He had a personal income from the properties he owned. In 1969
he and Ethel travelled to England. They stayed in Berners Hotel in London for part of June and
July. I saw them twice and they saw me read the ITV News at ITN.
I was 32 then and remember little about our meetings, except that the older couple were rather
old-fashioned and quiet. Through me they also met Peter and Joyce Honeycombe of
Walthamstow. It was the first time different branches of the family tree had met and the first time
Len and Ethel heard about some of the history of the Honeycombes, about Cornwall and
Honeycombe House.
Len officially retired in 1970, and his nephew John, 34 that year, assumed the leading role in the
management of the family business. One of the first things he did was to close the Home Hill
machinery shop the following year. 'With the increase in modern communication,' he said, 'it just
wasn't viable to have two outlets 10 kilometres apart.'
On 11 February 1973 Len and Ethel were on their annual trip to the North Island of New
Zealand, visiting horse studs and friends and staying as usual in Greerton, part of Tauranga; Len
was 66.
The Ayr newspaper, The Advocate, said: 'They had been motoring around the town of
Greerton during the day. On their return to the motel, Len decided to lie down as he felt a little
tired. A short while later, Mrs Honeycombe found that he had died while resting.'
John said later: 'I got a phonecall from New Zealand at ten o'clock at night, from Ethel, telling
me that Len had had a stroke that day and died. So I got on a plane at six o'clock the next
morning from Townsville to Sydney, and I was in New Zealand by about half-past one that
afternoon. He was cremated in Tauranga and his ashes were flown back to Townsville. Len and
Ethel had very good friends in Tauranga and would stay at the same motel every year. They'd
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go over in November and make the motel their base. They'd stay until about February, through
our very hot months... They had other friends in Hamilton. Len would go to the local Rotary
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