A JOINER with five decades years of experience is passing on the tricks of the trade to an apprentice 54 years his junior.

Peter Shepherd, 71, and Luke Thompson, 17, work for Northallerton-based building contractors Walter Thompson, and Mr Shepherd said has no intention of retiring from the job he loves.

He said: “It’s a job I’ve always enjoyed and still do.

“I started in joinery 55 years ago and things have changed a great deal for the better since then. Sites are much safer now and there are far greater opportunities to work up the ladder for people like young Luke.”

Mr Thompson, of Northallerton, is in the first year of a three-year joinery apprenticeship. He works four days a week for Walter Thompson and studies a BTec qualification at Darlington College one day a week.

Mr Shepherd also started his working life as an apprentice, and he worked for various local building firms before starting with Walter Thompson in 1979.

“It’s a career I would still recommend, it’s great working outside and you get a real sense of purpose and achievement in creating new buildings,” he said.

“I’m still working with someone who was my apprentice ten years ago – he still thinks of me as a mentor even though he knows the job inside out.”