A TRADESMAN has ended his 50-year building career working on a shop in Tavistock he knows like the back of his hand.

Graham Manning has worked for E L Greenings and Sons builders from the age of 15 and seen three generations of the Greenings family run the business.

He will retire at the end of this week, finishing his working days at Creber's delicatessen where he is dividing the shop into two units.

Mr Manning has done several jobs for the famous Tavistock store, most notably after a fire at the premises in the early 1980s when smoke damage destroyed much of the building and stock.

'We worked day and night to get the shop back open again — it was closed for ten days,' he said. 'I left school at 15 and went straight to work at Greenings. The job has been varied from working in hospitals to putting back church towers.

'I shall miss the friends I work with and the customers but I am looking forward to being able to do what I want to do now.'

Doing what he wants includes working on his new allotment.

Robert Creber, who decided to divide the shop into two, with one half of the premises set to be the Payless discount store, to secure the future of his business, said he was really pleased with the work that had been done by Greenings and Mr Manning.

'He knows the shop like the back of his hand — he's done a brilliant job and I am thrilled to bits,' said Mr Creber. 'The customers seem quite happy too as they are very interested in what is going on.'

The work to divide the store is expected to be completed next week.