Bill Heyes

Members will be saddened to learn of the death on April 4th of Bill Heyes, one of our longest-standing members, convenor of the Understanding Classical Music Group and an active member of the Historical Environment Group.

Bill, originally from Blackburn, came to Teesdale in the mid-70s with his wife Doreen and 2 sons – Robert & Andrew – to work at GSK in Barnard Castle. Bill had a BSc in Chemistry and later a PhD in Analytical Chemistry.

Bill was a chorister at Blackburn Cathedral in his early years and maintained a deep faith in the Christian church for the rest of his life. He also had a great love of classical music and an impressive knowledge of the subject. He started the u3a ‘Understanding Classical Music Group’ in 2017 and put a great deal of research into the subject matter for each meeting, drawing on many different sources. The members all found the meetings both fascinating and enlightening.

He was also very interested in the history of Teesdale, particularly lead-mining activities, and played an important part in the Teesdale Record Society. He had a very large collection of printed material, photographs and postcards covering Teesdale’s history.

Bill is survived by Doreen and Andrew & his partner, also his 2 sisters – Gillian & Dorothy.

He will be sadly missed