Stanwick man uses 72-year-old toaster every day

Jimmy James' toaster dates back to 1949, but he still uses it every day

A man who uses his 72-year-old toaster every day said he was embracing the spirit of the wartime generation.

Jimmy James, from Stanwick, in Northamptonshire, said the toaster was manufactured in December 1949 and given to his parents as a wedding present.

The 69-year-old said it only needed repairing once every six or seven years.

Mr James said: "I was brought up by the wartime generation and encouraged to repair things and not throw them away."

He inherited the Morphy Richards pop-up toaster after his father's death in 1993.

The machine generally needs repairing "once every six or seven years", he said.

'Fantastic guy'

He takes it to electrical experts J H May (Electrical) in Rushden, a company he called "Northamptonshire's answer to The Repair Shop".

The BBC One programme features a workshop filled with expert craftspeople, bringing loved pieces of family history and the memories they hold back to life.

"When you think the toaster is over 70 years old, there would be something really exceptional if it never went wrong," he said.

J H May celebrated its 70th anniversary in 2017 and turns 75 this year

He said J H May has a "fantastic guy there called Luke".

"He's really into complex electronics and he fixes it every time," said Mr James.

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Mr James' toaster is not the only old appliances he regularly uses.

He told BBC Radio Northampton he also has "a couple of old convector heaters from the 1950s" and a floor polisher from 1958.

He said such an outlook was important in a modern world "looking for greater sustainability and trying to keep things out of landfill".

J H May (Electrical)'s managing director Jonny May said the toaster had been built to last.

J H May's shop has been based on the corner of Moor Road/Station Road in Rushden since the 1960s

"Repairs are becoming few and far between," Mr May said, "but he keeps asking us to keep it going."

The company, which was founded in 1947, has been based in Moor Road, Rusden since the 1960s.

It specialises as an electrical contractor, working on large scale projects in churches and on farms, but Mr May said they often worked on "strange things", like rewiring antique chandeliers.

He said the age of Mr James' toaster was actually a benefit: "Newer ones aren't always repairable.

"Manufacturers don't want us to be able to mend it. They want people to buy a new one."

Mr May said there was "a growing pile of waste across the planet," with environment pollution and plastics joined by "mountains of white goods".

"We have been caught up in a race to the bottom with a belief that cheapest is best," he said.

Four generations of Mr May's family have worked for the company, while Luke Reid - who carried out the repairs on Mr James' toaster - joined from school.

He said he worried about the future of his "quaint, twee and lovely" repair shop and that cards from grateful pensioners might not be enough to keep it going in the face of a throw-away culture

But he said he was happy to continue keeping Mr James' toaster going.

"He's a character," Mr May said. "He comes in the shop and speaks to my mother who has been here since the late '60s."