Shropshire Star

I'll never retire: Market Drayton sawmill owner Bill still cutting it at 89

He may be 89 years old but despite being well past the age of retirement, the last thing Market Drayton's Bill Parton wants to do is cut down his working hours.

Published

After working at a sawmill for almost 50 years, it is fair to say Bill has plenty of experience in cutting.

He is still going strong at the sawmill in Hales he helped start in 1982, and has no plans to stop as the business goes from strength to strength.

And with phase two of a £2.75 million expansion set to be completed this year, Mr Parton is still working five-and-a-half days a week – and loves every minute of it.

Mr Parton said: "To work as long as I have you have to look after yourself, eating healthily and keeping myself ticking over, as well as having luck with the health which I have had so far.

"I have got no intention of stopping, especially as I enjoy it too much.

Bill Parton

"The devil makes work for idle hands and this keeps my brain working, my grey matter going over.

"Providing you're comfortable and you have enough, money does not matter and I do love doing what I do."

Mr Parton started his career at the height of World War Two, becoming a plumber in 1942 at the age of just 14.

A father of four sons, aged between 63 and 53, Mr Parton was married to wife Joan for more than 60 years before she passed away in December 2012.

After a spell as a steam engineer, he first began working in the timber industry when he started at a sawmill in Chipnall in the late 1960s.

Bill Parton

He said: "I knew the agent there was about to retire, so I stepped up so that it would keep going. Despite working there for over a decade, I was told when I reached 54 that I was too old to be running it anymore."

That led to him becoming partners with his son Julian, now 53, in starting up Hales Sawmills.

After starting out as a pair the business now employs 46 members of staff, including William's grandson Lewis, 21, and other members of the family.

And Mr Parton puts the secret of keeping orders for the business down to simply making sure that promises are kept.

Bill Parton

He said: "The whole reputation of the business is making sure that when these people want our services and ask for them to be delivered on a certain date, those deadlines are met.

Even though he has been working for three quarters of a century, there is no date planned for when Mr Parton will hang up his gloves for the last time.

He said: "When will I stop? I will finish work when the man in the sky with the tall hat and the screwdriver comes for me. I keep myself ticking over and the sawmill definitely does that for me.

"It gets me out of bed and I couldn't be happier."

Sorry, we are not accepting comments on this article.