"I was born in 1936 on Dorrington Road, Lancaster.

I was only a baby when we left and went to Hornby Road, Caton. I've two sisters, Carol and Maureen.

My mum looked after us three and worked nights in the telephone exchange. I often wonder when she slept!

My dad did farm work and I spent a lot of time with him.
I've no real recollection of anything that went on before the war started when I was three.

Because I didn't know anything different to wartime it wasn't a problem. You didn't have toys and things like that. At Christmastime I remember once getting a new tennis ball and played with it that much it just wore out.

There were always convoys of soldiers passing through and I used to watch the despatch riders – I was fascinated by motorbikes even then.

They'd pass all the convoy then stop and wait at the front till they'd moved on. I can remember this particular Sunday morning, these fighter aircraft practising dogfights over Caton.

Opposite where we lived there were fields and a beck and Army vehicles used to pull in and build a bridge across the beck. Then they'd take it down again, stay overnight and be away again next morning.

I went to Brookhouse School and enjoyed it. We had a good basic education in the '3 Rs' and we'd go for nature walks when the weather was suitable.

Of course we went to school with our gas masks. We didn't know what they were really for but they were alright if somebody bullied you – you swung 'em round and hit them with it.

After I'd passed my 11 plus I went to the grammar school and then followed the only part of my life I haven't enjoyed. I would have liked to have gone to the 'tech.'

I left at 16 with all these fancy certificates and all they seemed fit for was working in a bank, which I didn't want to do.

I went to work at Town End Farm at Halton. I started at half-past five in a morning until half-past five in the evening seven days a week. The lad that I worked with sold me a motorcycle for £10. That's how I started on the motorcycling; it was a BSA.

I went to join the Air Force when I was 17. I learned to be an engine mechanic and then an engine fitter. It was a good training.

When I chose to come out in 1959 I was on 30 bob a day all found and a clothing allowance. I've never been as well off before or since.

I went to the Labour Exchange on King Street and there was a job at Williamson's. I was only there two or three weeks and then a lad I played football with got me a job at the County Garage at Morecambe.

That was alright but I was only there a few weeks when I was offered a job at the Station Garage at Caton. And they all said: "He's come out of Air Force and he's had two jobs in five minutes, he'll never settle down!"

I went there in 1959 and left in 2001. So much for me not being able to settle down! I was there just over 42 years.

I love working. For the first five years after I retired I did three days a week at DSG, then went down to two days and I've just gone down to one day a week.

I met my wife, Jean Edgar, at a Silver Keynotes dance at Whittington Village Hall in 1967 and we were married in 1969.

It seems like five minutes ago. We've got no family of our own but we have our Peter.

My wife worked at the Luneside Centre and Peter lived at Riverview and was sent to do gardening at Luneside. He's classed as having learning difficulties but he's sharp in a lot of ways.

He started coming and having his tea with us, then he'd stop for weekends. Then he came here to convalesce after an operation and he's actually been living with us now for 20 years.

When he came to live with us he wanted a bike so I found him a
little 125. He can't read and write but he passed his car test first time and his motorbike test second time.

I played a lot of football, especially in the Air Force. And I played for Caton Utd from 1956 until I was 38. I've been riding motorbikes for 56 years now. I've three motorbikes at present: a little thing that I go to work on, a 54-year-old BSA which I'm going to renovate, and a
modern Japanese bike.

My wife and I have been abroad on it a few times. I started in '64, going abroad on bikes. I had a bike when we got married and I was
fortunate that Jean took to motorcycling and enjoyed it.

We used to go to the Isle of Man for the TT. We went abroad
together for the first time in 1981. We went back to the Isle of Man in '82 and then we decided we'd go abroad each year on the bike and the Isle of Man would be still there when we were too old for that.

We've been abroad on a bike every year, from '82, mostly to Spain, and then France, Germany, Holland, Belgium, Austria, Italy. I'm off to the North West 200 in Northern Ireland. My friend who's coming on the back of the bike is 75 this year so he's older than me! He went to Spain with us in '64.

I've been fortunate in the things that are important: I've had a job that I enjoyed and I've been happy in what really matters, a successful marriage.

I've always said that if your personal life is happy you can do anything. I've had a lot of luck."