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 JOHN MILTON

Born: Yeo Mill, Devon, 1931
Lived: Yeo Mill
Recording made: 2002
Length of recording: 3 hrs 41 mins

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Patridge Arms, where John Milton lives, was a public house when his grandfather bought it in 1906; the sign is still outside. It is now a farm and guest house, run as a family business.

He thinks he is the only person left in the parish who was there in the wartime. Spitfires and German bombers, following the railway line up the valley, had dogfights outside the window and the vicar and the policeman poached salmon together. It's 35 years since the railway shut down, but he still stops and looks both ways when he comes to the level crossing on the farm.

He was a district councillor for 32 years and on the National Park Committee for 25, a large part of which he spent as chairman of planning. He says money isn't everything, as long as you've got enough. It's the way of life that counts.