Noel Village Obituary
May 2010
It is with regret and sadness that the Company announces the death of its Founder, Ronald Noel Village, on Saturday 8th May at the age of 88.
Noel was the third of five sons of Rowland Village who was a driving force in the iron foundry industry. Rowland set up his castings business at Whittington Moor, Chesterfield during the depression, being joined eventually by all his sons after the war. He died in 1950 and his sons took over the business.
Noel had trained as a metallurgist and was a member of the Chesterfield IBF. He was president of this branch before his retirement.
In 1982 he decided to set out on his own and form a steel casting company - Noel Village (Steel Founder) - on a redundant foundry site in Eckington along with his son Anthony. The business prospered in spite of an adverse market for traditional mining and engineering castings and began to outgrow its facility there. Noel retired from the business in 1986 leaving Anthony in control. By 1992, Noel Village Foundry moved to its new site at Carr Hill Doncaster and Noel was invited back to pour the first casting on the new site.
Outside his steel foundry interests, as a young man he was active in local rugby and cricket which he played to a good standard. Later this talent was turned to golf where he was already a member at Hallowes Golf Club and where he later became president. Gardening was a hobby which he developed further after retirement.
He is survived by his son Anthony who is Chairman of the Company, his two daughters and his younger son, John, the well known racing driver and automotive engineer.
Firm on the foundations set out for his steel foundry enterprise, Noel Village Integrity Castings as it is now known, has survived a variety of crises across the foundry industry and its engineering markets in recent times and, with its new management team, is now developing new business in a variety of market areas for stainless and other complex alloy steels.