The timber merchant passed his Army medical and was all set to join the forces.

But then a top official told him: You can't fight. We need you too much here.

"He said there was no-one in the country who could chop trees like me," said Jim, now 83.

"So I spent the war travelling the country getting as much timber as I could for supplies."

Jim also used his love of wood to help the Dam Busters drop their bouncing bombs from the night skies.

His skill produced tough ash doors to hold and then drop the revolutionary device over the heartland of industrial Germany.

But the military men knew Jim was well-trained for the job.

His family started in the timber trade when they settled in Lower Peover in 1762 - and Jim bought his first tree at nine.

Three years later the little lad was riding around Knutsford's roads in a horse and cart taking supplies to customers.

"I took to the business really easily," said Jim, a former Lower Peover School pupil.

But his dog Tony often got him into trouble during his daily deliveries.

"He'd be into those big houses like a shot if they left the door open," said Jim, of Free Green Lane, Lower Peover.

"He loved raiding people's pantries and eating all the beef. Once he was that keen he ate the meat and broke the big plate it was on."

Sometimes Jim also got jumpy journeying through Princess Street in Knutsford.

"It was a major through road then and if something steam powered frightened the horses by making a noise you were lucky not to end up in a shop window," he said.

Jim also had near misses wielding his axe well before the days of the chainsaw.

Once a massive log crashed on to his leg - inches away from killing him.

"I've only ever been to the doctors when I've hurt myself through work," he said.

"I've been lucky to always be healthy. And I never damaged anyone's property throughout my career."

But Jim, whose firm diversified into undertaking, once had to work hard to calm mourners at a funeral in Knutsford after the mortuary handed over the wrong body.

"The coffin had to be opened and the person identified," he said.

"Then we had to wait for the right body to arrive from Manchester before we could start another service."

Jim had happier times parading horses at Knutsford's Royal May Day - and he made the town's May Pole which is still used today.

Lower Peover will always be home with his wife of 50 years Audrey.

"There's no finer place in England," said Jim.

But one regret in hindsight was spending months chopping down trees to clear the way for Manchester Airport.

"We got VIP treatment when it opened in 1937," he said.

"But no-one then realised it would ever reach the scale it has. I remember when it was full of market gardens. Now I can't recognise the place."

Converted for the new archive on 13 March 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.