Bye Bye Berkeley

There was a splendid send-off in the Court House ballroom for Berkeley Williams, who decided to retire at the end of February after 12 years as the Custodian of the building and the Mayor’s Chauffeur. There were many former mayors present, along with Councillors, the Town Council staff, representatives of the Court Leet and the Unlocking Warwick community volunteers.

Over the years, Berkeley has looked after the Grade-1 listed Court House with great care and attention, facilitating hundreds of events ranging from wedding receptions to auctions and dances to keep fit classes. 

With his assistant Chris, Berkeley has been a fantastic supporter of Unlocking Warwick, making sure our social events in the ballroom were well prepared, setting up stages and audiovisual equipment, and willingly helping in the kitchen. He will be missed.

At his leaving ‘do’, the Town Clerk warmly thanks him for all his great support, and the current Mayor of Warwick, Neale Murphy, spoke of Berkeley driving mayors to many hundreds of official events, ‘keeping them on the straight and narrow’ and keeping them on time. 

At Christmas, Unlocking Warwick had presented Berkeley with a box of real ale as an early retirement present and a thank you for all his help over recent years.

The jobs of custodian and driver are now being split. The new Custodian at the Court House is Vernal Myton, and the part-time chauffeur for the mayors will be Sid Russell. Welcome both!