Britain’s oldest worker says he still has no plans to retire at the grand age of 96 – after a career spanning 82 years.
Bill Parton is still clocking on five days a week at the sawmill business he founded himself 42 years ago – despite leaving school being unable to read or write.
The great-grandad’s working life started as a plumber’s apprentice in 1942 when he was aged 14 before going on to forge the family’s successful company.
Bill, who turned 96 this week, is now mainly bound to the office but is no stranger to getting his hands dirty and fixing tools if required on the factory floor.
He still works 40 hours a week – having only dropped his sixth day 12 months ago – and has never missed a week’s work in his life.
The sprightly pensioner says there’s no real secret behind his long career beyond a good work ethic and he just wanted to do something to “keep his mind active”.
Three of his grandchildren are now at the helm of Hales Sawmill in Market Drayton, Shrops, but that hasn’t stopped the OAP grafting at the firm he set up in 1982.
As well as most likely being Britain’s oldest worker, Bill is also one of the country’s oldest bosses and says he is proud of the company he built from scratch.
And despite clocking up more than eight decades of work, the great-grandfather of six has no plans to settle down and has vowed to keep working until he dies.
Bill said: “You’ve got to keep your mind moving. The trick is to not stop. Keep working. I’ve never been down the dole office, I wouldn’t know what to do if I went in.
“I used to be the gaffer, now I’m really the go-fer – you’ve got to let the kids have a go. My son and the grandchildren are running it quite efficiently. It’s wonderful to see it pass through to the third generation.
“I normally come in around 9am and leave at 5pm. I walk around and see what the machines are doing. I can tell if something’s wrong with a machine even from a squeak – I can hear it above all the noise. I can see everything that’s going on.
“Until that bloke in the tall hat and screwdriver comes to screw the lid shut, I’ll keep going.”
After becoming a plumber’s apprentice, Bill was later employed as a steam engineer before he began working in sawmills in 1954.
During and after the war, he helped working on turning aerodromes into temporary accommodation for troops and displaced citizens returning home. He founded Hales Sawmill in 1982 with his late wife Joan with just two employees but now he’s in charge of over 60 staff spanning across two sites.
Bill added: “I have never stopped since 1942, I’ve never missed a week’s work in all my life. I did have a hip operation that laid me off for a couple of days though.
“After the war, I was working on aerodromes on the airfields. I was putting baths and sinks into the buildings for people to live in. It was just after the war, there were buildings where we put the displaced persons. They built houses for them afterwards but we had to transform the buildings as temporary homes.
“It was a bit soul destroying seeing them all come over so thin, all coming out of prison camps. It was pretty awful. We had food rationed but we made them homely for them. I left school and couldn’t read and write. You have to be lucky in a way. I started this firm in 1982 after I was made redundant from another sawmill.
“You can’t sit back, you’ve got to keep going. You have to keep your mind active and doing something. I don’t do as much these days but I’m always on hand if they need me.”
