84-year-old Salisbury building site fan has birthday wish granted
John got to sit in a digger and a dumper truck
An 84-year-old building site fan in Salisbury, who asked to visit a site opposite his care home for his birthday, has had his wish come true.
John Parfitt lives at Braemar Lodge on Stratford Road and had been watching the work on Colten Care home’s extension.
“I’ve been looking across from Braemar Lodge, keeping an eye on how it’s all going and seeing the guys driving round,” John said.
“On my birthday in December, I asked if I could come on-site and see it for real at a suitable stage and when the weather was good enough,” he added.
John’s interest comes from a career which included being an agency worker on building sites, and got to don his hard hart and hi-viz one more time when he and two other Braemar Lodge residents visited the site.
John got to sit at the controls of an eight-ton digger and a three-ton dumper truck: “I’m happy as Larry,” he said, “Sitting here I just feel I’m in the right place at the right time. It’s comfortable and you have a sense of the power it can deliver.”
Site Manager Paul Findlay accompanied John on his visit and said: “It was a real pleasure to give John such a great experience. I could tell he had been on building sites before. He had all the site banter!”
John wasn’t the only person enjoying themselves as fellow Braemar Lodge residents Catherine Brighty and Pamela Rees were turning ‘detectorists’.
The pair took a metal detector to search for items under the rubble and mud in a small, safe area well away from the main construction site.
They didn’t find any treasure but did unearth various bits of metal including screws, nails, coins and a tap.