12/02/2026
Meet Terry, one of the first residents to join us at Cayton View.💙
Terry’s family has kindly allowed us to share details of his incredible life.
Terry Tapley: A Life Well‑Lived, From Tooting to Cayton View
If you sit with Terry Tapley for more than five minutes, you quickly realise you’re in the company of a man who has lived several lifetimes’ worth of stories. Born on 12 March 1940 in Tooting, South London, Terry was the youngest of eight children — six brothers and two sisters. His sister Rose sadly passed away very young, a loss that stayed with the family.
The Tapley's were a building and construction clan through and through, but Terry had other ideas. While the rest of the family reached for tools, he reached for pencils and sketchbooks. He left school at just thirteen and became the youngest student ever accepted into Camberwell Art College. It was there that he discovered two lifelong loves: art and jazz.
South London in the 1950s was buzzing, and Terry soon found himself drawn into the Soho music scene. Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club became his second home, and he mixed with some of the biggest names of the era — not that he ever made a fuss about it.
After college, he became a technical drawer and signwriter. The only thing that ever held him back was his colour blindness, which frustrated him no end, especially when he had to ask friends and family to double‑check colours for him.
By the late ’50s and early ’60s, Terry was a proper socialite, living for the music, the atmosphere, and the characters of Soho.
But life has a way of surprising you, and at a mutual friend’s party he met Sylvia — Sylv — the woman who would change everything. They married in 1964 and went on to have two children, Mark and Louise.
In time, Terry also became a proud grandfather to three grandchildren and, later, a great‑grandfather to four great‑grandchildren who adore him.
Terry worked tirelessly throughout his life, always self‑employed, always grafting. He became known for painting pub signs across the country — The Dunn Cow, The Red Lion, and countless others. His talent eventually led him to prestigious work for major London companies, contributing to displays for the Boat Show, the Ideal Home Show, and the big exhibitions at Earls Court and Olympia. His claim to fame though was that he was the main set designer and artist on the film Little Voice starring Michael Caine.
Thanks to his family background, Terry could turn his hand to almost anything. Woodcarving became another passion, and several of his pieces now sit proudly in his room at Cayton View. His drawings, too, have found a home on the care‑home walls, admired by staff and visitors alike.
In 1987, Terry and Sylv made the bold decision to leave London behind and move to Scarborough, where Sylv’s sister lived with her husband, Roy Jenkinson of the well‑known fishing family. They bought a hotel near Scarborough Castle and converted it into a shared family home — Terry, Sylv, Sheila, and Roy — and somehow made it work beautifully. Terry quickly built up a successful signwriting business in Yorkshire, with shops, takeaways, lorries, and vans all wanting his work.
Then, in 2001, tragedy struck. Sylv passed away from mesothelioma, an asbestos‑related disease. Terry’s world fell apart. He couldn’t bear to stay in the family home without her, so he moved to a small flat in Cayton. He never truly recovered from losing her — and he never pretended otherwise.
But Terry didn’t retreat from life. He threw himself into volunteering at St Catherine’s Hospice, the very place where Sylv had spent her final days. He stayed there as a volunteer until he was 81. He also became a keen bowler and even served as President of Thornton‑le‑Dale Bowling Club, making firm friendships along the way.
In later years, ill health caught up with him — Covid, prostate cancer, and a fall that broke his hip. His daughter Louise brought him to live with her in Langtoft, where he was looked after with love and patience. After eighteen months, it became clear he needed more support, and Louise found Cayton View Care Home.
And that’s where Terry is today — surrounded by warmth, kindness, and people who appreciate the remarkable life he’s lived. He still has his artwork, his carvings, and his memories. And even now, at 86, there’s a spark in him that tells you he’s never stopped being the boy from Tooting who chose art over building sites, jazz over routine, and love above everything else.💙
