'When I saw her I fell in love immediately, and it changed my life'

"When I saw her I fell in love immediately - we started going out soon after and it changed my life."

Those are the words of doting husband Derrick Adamson who has paid tribute to his wife Daphne, who died earlier this month.

The couple will be well-known to the shoppers and residents in Tang Hall as former owners of the Spar supermarket, which they ran for more than twenty years from 1980, before opening a fish and chip shop on the same site in Tang Hall Lane, running it from 2004 until 2021.

What might be less known is that before moving to York from the East Riding of Yorkshire, Daphne travelled the north of England working as a model, with a portfolio that included regular appointments at footballing-icon George Best’s boutique in Manchester.

Daphne was born at Wharram-le-Street on June 4, 1947 to David and Grace Midgley and first went to school in Settrington.

The family moved to Huggate Wold when she was five, and, along with sisters Jennifer, Angela and Susan, she helped her mum around the place where her dad worked as a foreman on a farm, and Daphne attended school in Fridaythorpe then Driffield.

It was back in Fridaythorpe where Derrick first met Daphne, in the café there two days before her sixteenth birthday.

He was working as a farm labourer in nearby Buttercrambe.

Derrick said: “When I saw her I fell in love immediately.

“We started going out soon after and it changed my life."

Derrick said Daphne always used to love riding pillion on the back of his motorbike, when the two of them would take rides in the county and further afield.

The couple would travel all over the country on Derrick's motorbikes (Image: Supplied)

He said: "When she was 17 she was taken on by Leeds model agency Vogue, getting work in Blackpool, Scarborough, Harrogate, Leicester and Manchester, travelling by train to appointments one after the other.”

Derrick said it was possible a modelling talent scout had attended a ‘Young Farmers Dairy Queen’ pageant in Malton which Daphne had been entered into.

Daphne began modelling in the 1960s and her portfolio included work at Leak & Thorp in Coney Street, York (Image: Supplied)

A pocket diary from 1966 showed almost two dozen entries in one fortnight in April of that year for modelling jobs all over the north – often two or three in one day.

Her portfolio included work at Leak & Thorp, the well-known department store in York’s Coney Street.

He said: “Every month, Daph and three other models would go to footballers George Best and Mike Summerbee’s boutique in Manchester to model the new stock.”

Daphne would still help out at the farm as and when needed in between modelling jobs, picking then stacking potatoes by hand into boxes.

Derrick and Daphne enjoyed great days out on motorbikes with friends, including Conrad Crutchley and Geoff Kirby, travelling all over the north of England.

Daphne road pillion on the back of Derrick’s Triumph Tiger Cub and Tiger 100 alloy motorbikes – from the first time on June 5, 1963, right up until 2011, and they covered countless thousands of miles, he said.

They weren’t always heralded when they reached their destination, however, especially in seaside towns with territorial tendencies amongst mods and rockers.

Derrick said: “We got to this one place in Scarborough once, opened the main door and a member of staff jumped onto the counter, pointed at us and turned us round on our heels.

“We often travelled in our bike leathers, and it was only when we got back to the car park that we realised it was full of scooters owned by mods and they obviously didn’t want any aggro.”

The couple married on June 1, 1968 in Huggate with a reception at Stamford Bridge and at this point Daphne was a demonstrator for English Electric appliances.

Daphne and Derrick's wedding reception was in Stamford Bridge (Image: Supplied)

The couple bought their first house just outside Stamford Bridge off the A166, where daughter Rachel arrived in 1972, and son Paul was born in 1974.

Derrick and Daphne took the plunge into the world of retail in 1979, buying an off-licence in School Lane, and sold some of the niche wines of the day, before opening what was at first called the VG store on Tang Hall Lane.

Daphne managed and worked in the store at first with Derrick staying on as a labourer at Low Burton Fields farm, helping out by cooking hams for the in-store delicatessen, and soon the business became part of the Spar empire.

Derrick said: “As I sit here I can see her serving the customers she was always so friendly and chatty with, or sorting the magazines out.”

Daphne would enjoy a competitive game of darts at clubs in Osbaldwick and Stamford Bridge and joined Derrick, who rekindled his love for live singing on the local circuit.

Daphne and Derrick at their 25th anniversary, flowers from a trade competition, and darts was part of Daphne's social life (Image: Supplied)

Holidays were taken at various Pontins, friends and family trips to Greece, Portugal and Spain and one year the couple made the long trip to visit Derrick’s sister in New Zealand.

Daphne also found time for Rosemary Conley keep-fit classes and completed the Race for Life in the nineties and noughties.

By 1998 on the shop front it was time for a change and the couple exited the Spar chain, with Daphne mentioning to Derrick how she had always had a soft spot for the fish and chip shop in the area, that had recently closed.

With that in mind, the couple opened Tang Hall Fish and Chips in 2004, with Daphne serving customers and Derrick frying across the 17 years they owned the business, with children Rachel and Paul working alongside them.

In 2008, she was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease.

Daphne Adamson passed away on June 11, aged 77.

Her funeral will be held at York Crematorium on Wednesday, July 3 at 1pm. There will be a wake at Osbaldwick Sports Club afterwards.