Brian Foyle passing away in March
This is an article kindly reproduced from Helen Osman’s N21 Online newsletter from the 3rd April 2020. There is likely to be some sort of memorial service for him once things get back to normal after the lock down. We will let you know the details here on the website and via email when we know more so that the many people who knew him can pay their respects.
Brian Foyle, who sadly passed away on the 27th March was well known to many people who live and work in Winchmore Hill Green.
A retired architect, Brian was very active in local affairs in and around Winchmore Hill
He was an enthusiastic committee member of the Winchmore Hill Residents Association, with responsibility for planning.
Robert Taylor President of the Winchmore Hill Residents Association writes.
“Brian was keen to protect Winchmore Hill Green’s unique environment and, to this end, he was a long serving member of Enfield Council’s Conservation Advisory Group.
Relentlessly, but only occasionally successfully, he forthrightly opposed approval being given to householders to create extra rooms above garages and in expanded attics. These, he claimed, completely changed the appearance of many local residential roads – and not for the better.
His other interests included classic cars. He had a blue Austin 7 which, in which he drove around the area on summer days with the top down. He exhibited this car at the Enfield Pageant of Motoring. In his younger days he has been a track marshal at Bentley Owners Club motor racing meetings at Silverstone.
He was also an enthusiastic photographer having been, in the 1980s, a committee member of the Chanticleer Camera Club which met at the Minchenden Centre. Later he was involved with the Enfield Camera Club for several years. He was a keen black and white film photographer but never moved on to digital photography.
Together with his wife Gillian, who passed away in 2017 he had a significant amount of involvement with the Winchmore Hill United Reformed Church and the Compton Players.
For may years Brian and Gillian lived in a Georgian house on Vicars Moor Lane, next the railway bridge, and he once told a neighbour who lived in a similar property “You do not own this house, you are its curator”. He will be sadly missed”
Winchmore Hill councillor Dinah Barry writes:
“Brian will be very much missed for his kindness and his wisdom as well has his many talents”.
I (Helen Osman) would like to add my own memories of Brian. We used to meet for a coffee every few months, usually in the Deli on the Green or the Larder, until Gillian passed away and his own health worsened. We didn’t always see eye to eye, for example, on cycle lanes, the planning application for Buckle & Vaughan; but we shared a love for our home area, Winchmore Hill. Brian was very supportive of what I have tried to achieve over the past decade through n21online.com. Brian always had a twinkle in his eye.
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