Market Drayton sawmill owner, 96, still working five days a week

Bill Parton still works five days a week at Hales Sawmills

A 96-year-old man is still working five days a week at the sawmill he founded more than 40 years ago.

Bill Parton started Hales Sawmills in Shropshire in 1982 with his son Julian who was 18 at the time.

Four decades on and his grandchildren have taken over the family business but Mr Parton still comes in to help in the yard daily.

"As long as I've got my feet on the ground I'll keep working," Mr Parton said.

"I left school at 14 and couldn't read or write. To see Hales now just amazes me, it makes me want to come to work."

Hales Sawmills was founded in 1982

The father-of-four started his career in timber by managing a sawmill in Market Drayton but when he was let go he decided to launch his own.

At first it was based in the village of Hales in Staffordshire, about two miles outside of Market Drayton, before it made the town its home in 2015.

Sundays at the yard

He said his late wife Joan had a big part to play in making Hales what it was today.

"We would spend our Sundays at the yard," Mr Parton said.

"Joan would do all the lads overtime...they called her mother."

Mr Parton said the people that work for them were "the most important".

Bill Parton with grandson Lewis and son Julian

The keen baker often makes cakes on his evenings and brings them in for workers the next day.

Mr Parton's grandchildren said "retirement isn't in his vocabulary".

"We have all been given a fantastic opportunity to keep moving the business forward from the strong foundations that have been put in place by my dad and grandad," Lewis Parton said.

Mr Parton oversaw the opening of another Hales in Shrewsbury which is run by his other two grandchildren

Mr Parton's other two grandchildren, Owen and Jemma, set up Hales Sawmills in Shrewsbury last year with their grandfather overseeing the building of it.

"To be able to build another Hales with the help of grandad Bill is amazing," they said.

"We really want to keep his legacy going and make him proud.

"He's happiest when he's at work, helping around the yard and being part of the community he has created".