Auf Wiedersehen After 28 Years

After 28 years working at the Charltons’ saw mills at Buckland Down just outside Frome, Health and Safety Adviser Peter Hinge has finally called it a day and retired.

A highly accomplished and popular local artist, with a special interest in the Somerset & Dorset Railway, Peter is certainly going to be kept busy during his retirement, but he will also miss his old work place.

“I am obviously looking forward to being able to do the things that I want to do,” says Peter. “However, after 28 happy years, it is also the case that I am going to miss the many friends that I have made at the company.”

It was almost by accident however that Peter came to work in the first place at AJ Charlton and Sons Limited. The company’s Chairman and CEO ‘AJ’ Charlton explains.

“I remember Peter approaching us to on the off-chance to see whether we had any vacancies. We didn’t, but we had just installed what was then a brand new state of the art piece of machinery from Germany. Unfortunately, the German engineer who arrived with the machine could not speak a word of English to pass on to us how to operate the machinery. Peter then revealed to us that he was able to speak some German, so he helped to translate and we gave him a job!’

“Peter joined our fitters’ shop, before going on to head the maintenance department,” adds ‘AJ’. “For the past 14 years Peter has been our Health & Safety Adviser, performing a vital task. He will be sorely missed by everyone here at the company and on behalf of all of us here, I would like to wish Peter a very long, happy and of course creative retirement.”