Geoffrey Norman Yates 1960 - 2025

Born in Chorley Hospital, Geoffrey Norman Yates was the second child, first son of Gladys and Norman. He was christened at St John the Divine in Coppull.
When he started at Coppull County Primary School, Geoff was told that “when the bell rings you will be able to go home”, so each play time and dinner time, when the bell rang, he went home, each time his mum took him back to school. Geoff carried on his education at Southlands until he was sixteen.
By this time the family had grown from Pauline and Geoff to Christine, Joan, twins Colin and Gordon, and Glenn, with Paul completing the family a couple of years later.
Geoff had a range of jobs, beginning as an apprentice butcher at Lennon’s Supermarket on Market Street, quite often having a Wigan meat pie (which is a pie between two slices of bread) for his lunch. He then went on to the R.O.F. at Euxton.
At around this time he met Helen whilst going around the pubs. Helen and Geoff got married at St Joseph’s in Chorley on 2nd July 1983, making Coventry Street their home for over 40 years before moving to Longworth Street. Whilst at Coventry Street they had four wonderful children; Louis, Richard, Charlotte and Mark and were then joined by four fantastic grandchildren; Emily, Abigail, Rosemary and Reuben.
For a short time, Geoff even became a DJ with his friend…known as DJ Hot Space. Following this he began a job as a postman where he met his best friend Mick before he moved on to work at Chorley Hospital, Holy Cross, Christ Church School, Runshaw College and finally his last employment was working with Helen at Kleeneze.
Some of the fondest memories of Geoff involved caravanning holidays. He went on his first caravan holiday with Helen, a very young Louis and Helen’s parents, Tom and Joan. Geoff didn’t know what to expect on this holiday but must have enjoyed it as he then took his family on many more caravan holidays in England, Scotland and Wales, having lots of fun along the way.
He loved lots of different music, especially rock – with Queen and The Doors being amongst his favourites. In contrast to this he also quite enjoyed occasionally watching Andre Rieu.
Geoff enjoyed visiting family and friends – playing board games, chess, Dungeons and Dragons, Magic the Gathering, Games Workshop games, Monopoly and many more. He also liked to keep up to date with computers – playing on his Atari, Sinclair Spectrum, X Box and later on, on his gaming PC and even his phone, a favourite was Bubble Witch Saga.
His interests extended to watching wrestling, his favourite being The Undertaker, a few of you may have recognised his theme being played earlier.
Geoff enjoyed brewing beer, making country wines and even creating flavoured vodkas which he would then appreciate with family and friends. From around 1986 we used to throw a little Christmas party and Geoff’s quizzes became infamous. Unfortunately, Covid put a hold on these, and then Geoff was too poorly to continue them in the following years.
Social gatherings were the perfect place for Geoff to enjoy a joke and bring out his one-liners, you didn’t always know if he was being serious or making a joke of something other than the cheeky glint in his eye.
Geoff supported Manchester United and during football season there would likely be a conversation on how United were performing and who should and shouldn’t be in the team. He also liked playing football with family on a Saturday, this enjoyment has been passed on to the children and grandchildren, he was always very proud of Emily’s performances for Astley & Buckshaw JFC.