PuBlic meeting

Christopher Tootal, who has just died at the age of 87, was the reason why Ardleigh has its Millennium Green. A brilliant mind (a distinguished Patent Lawyer with an Oxford Chemistry degree, the author of a book on the Law of Industrial Design, Master of the Tallow Chandlers Livery Company 2001-3 and Member of Honour of the AIPPI), he was also a creative thinker. 

In the late 1990s, when he was Ardleigh’s District Councillor, he recognised the potential of the Millennium Commission’s matched funding scheme which enabled villages to build their own village greens. He acted at once, assembled a group of villagers to become trustees and set about locating a suitable piece of land. We all know the result: our much loved Millennium Green. Christopher was the moving force behind all the fund-raising, physical work and grant claiming that made the Green. He opened it on January 1st 2000 with the Millennium oak tree formally planted to mark the occasion.

Christopher and his wife, Alison, were keen sailors and, for many years, kept their boat in Loch Sunart in the north-west of Scotland, where they enjoyed the beautiful scenery and wildlife of the Western Isles. In his youth, Christopher was a keen oarsman, rowing for Queen’s College, Oxford; he was Captain of Boats when they came Head of the River for the first time in many, many years.

The Tootal family moved to Ardleigh in the bitter cold of February 1971 and set about renovating their farmhouse, which, at that time, even had ivy growing up inside the sitting room. Village affairs came to play an important part of Christopher’s life. He was on the Parish Council, then became District Councillor for many years. He became Chairman of the Ardleigh Parochial Charities: having sorted out various historical bequests made by Ardleigh residents in the past, he combined them all into one main charity, which subsequently became more effective. 

We will be able to remember him in Ardleigh Church at a Thanksgiving Service on Monday 17th July at 2pm. Everyone welcome.

Updated 16 June 2023