Michael James Payler, always known as Jim or Jimmy, was born in 1940 in a cottage down from the Sun, Moon & Stars, just by the canal.  His father was a Canal Company worker, and Jim fished there as a boy - it was to become one of the loves of his life.

The family moved up to 40 High Street next door to the Fosters who, a little later, sold to the Pykes who became good friends.  Jim and Beryl met in 1967 - both were members of different Rambling clubs and they met on what Beryl describes as a pub-crawl!  They were married in 1968 and at that time Jim was working at the CWS Wholesale Depot in Guildhall Road.  Jim moved on to be an Area Rep for the CWS. He worked for Express Lifts for a while before settling on the job which occupied most of his working life, which was spent installing and testing aerial masts, first and lastly for RTM (Radio Telegraph Masts), and in between for J Beam Aerials.  This was when police and ambulances needed the airwaves; Orange and the rest of the mobile phone stuff came later.  The job took him all over the country, and Beryl remembers that even on holiday in Scotland Jim felt the need to look out for aerials and ponder their function.  On another occasion they travelled together to the Coventry area and searched for trees with pink rings marked on them that indicated intended felling to form a clearing where a mast would go.  When discussing holiday locations, he would often reference a place to a particular not-straightforward aerial installation.

Jim served his village well - very knowledgeable in country matters.  He was a Parish Councillor for 29 years, where he was always ready to make comments and suggestions in his characteristically cryptic and sometimes
fairly blunt way.  His special interest there, of course, was Public Footpaths and to his great credit some footpaths are open now that certainly wouldn't be if he hadn't pursued this cause so strongly.  He organised Summer Walks, and many of us will remember, "Come on, we have got to keep the footpaths open".   These jaunts often took us through the middle of a field and sometimes barbed wire had to be cut!  The outings always ended up at a pub. Walking back in the near darkness was sometimes a bit tricky.

Jim's photographic activities began in the late 1950's with guidance and inspiration from Walter Alexander from whom he learnt professional techniques and good composition, and has had pictures published in Country Life, the Canal Magazines, Peoples Friend and the Daily Mail.  In fact, just a week before he died Jim took photographs of Blisworth Marina Open Day and one was accepted in the Chronicle and Echo. There are hundreds of Jim's pictures on the online Village Website - so the fruits of his attentiveness will live on.

He loved food and drink and Beryl is a wonderful cook challenged sometimes by Jim's enthusiasm for meat.  Memorable was one Saturday before one Christmas, now years ago, when he and the family went to Northampton Cattle Market to buy a turkey.  Beryl and Ruth left Jim and Andrew there but that was mistake, for when they turned up later it was with 15 turkeys and six geese.  Poor Beryl had to deal with the rest.  Another pursuit of Jim’s was vegetable growing.  He was a good keen gardener if a bit unconventional, perhaps a tad chaotic someone impolite might suggest.  When he had a plot on the Parish Council field he would be seen cycling up there with a fork and rake tied very precariously on the crossbar.

His greatest passion though, apart from his family, was indeed the canal, it's locks and it's towpaths and most especially the working boats along with the lives of the families that lived and worked on them.  Jim watched as the old boat “Lucy” was dredged from the cut but was too damaged to restore.   He would really have loved to see 'Sulphur', an old working boat at Stoke Bruerne, restored to its original condition and purpose. Let's hope that it will be.  Oddly, Jim never wanted to holiday on the Canal.

So, as a Rambler, a Photographer, the Paths Warden and canal expert and also The Friend you could meet for a drink down the pub, Jim has been a familiar figure in the village for his entire life.  Some know him as a wicked
nicknamer - we have the Blonde Bombshell, the Martians, the Andrews Sisters, Enid Blyton, Arkwright (the shopkeeper), the B-B-C and many many more – all kindly meant for sure. There was a particularly notable nickname he coined at a time when the village was rapidly expanding:  'Blow-ins' were folk who came in and aimed to make changes and hence a big impression on the community.

All of us knew Jim; folk would say "Well YOU know Jim". Well we DID all know Jim ~ and we liked what we knew.   HE NEVER CHANGED.

A service in memory and appreciation of Jim Payler's life was held
at the Northampton Crematorium on April 27, 2011.