My Story

A brief history of my working life starts with an apprentice toolmaker with Pressed Steel Fisher in Swindon a part of British Leyland. Whilst still at British Leyland I became an Industrial Engineer during the turbulent mid to late seventies. As a complete change I became restaurateur/publican manager for Beefeater/Trophy Taverns part of the Whitbread Group, this took me around the Cotswolds and Midlands working in a total of a dozen Public House/Inns. My wife (of the time) and I, were very fond of Cornwall and decided to locate there as tenant innkeepers of the Bolingey Inn. Six years later on, the failure of the marriage and the business I became a school bus and taxi driver in Perranporth and moved to live in the village of Rose with my son Grant.  I became interested in computing and from here my interest blossomed to the point of making a sideline career from it. At this time I also became a postman, this saw my return to Bolingey as the village postie. I met my partner Barbara in 1999 and moved to Mitchell with her in 2000. We have four children between us, her daughters Lisa, Tina, Sarah & my son Grant. They have provided us with 8 grandchildren, Jake, Dylan, Melissa, twins Ellie & Katelin, Jayden, Elijah, Layla & Daphne. We also have Connor our 1st Great Grandchild; they all live in Truro.  My time as a postman ended in 2008 with retirement due to ill health. After a number of voluntary jobs I took a job as a sales assistant at the Range in Truro working in pets, gardens and DIY.  My interests over the years have included Rugby Union, MG's, rallying, gardening, model railways and Cornish music & dance. From 1992-2010 I was a member of the Bolingey Troyl Band. At  the start of 2019 I retired from The Range, with the intention of following my hobby of model railways and my new interest in Stained Glass work, but first I had to decorate three quarters of the house to prove to Barbara I was fit to retire.  Now that I have retired I am still making stained glass pieces occasionally, I still model my N gauge railway and i still  enthusiastic about my garden wildlife. I have installed several security cameras around our house but have trained them on points around the garden to capture the most wildlife, they may also capture the odd burglar as they trip over the wires!