‘Six decades in scrap and I still love every day’

Ben Woolley was just 15 years old when his father died and he took on the family scrap metal business.

Too young to drive at the time, Ben used a horse and cart to collect and recycle scrap metal across Nottinghamshire.

The grandfather, now 72, from Huthwaite still works seven days a week and has been shortlisted for a national recycling award.

“What else would I do? I just wouldn’t know what to do, I’ve loved it. I’ve loved every day,” he said.

Ben’s connection to scrap metal goes back more than a century.

His grandfather Joe Woolley began collecting in 1911 using a horse and cart to trade everything from rabbit skins to glass jam jars.

Ben’s father, also called Ben, took over the family business after World War Two, recycling metals for industry and collecting door-to-door.

When he died in 1968, Ben, just a teenager at the time, took over the business.

“I left school in May, and he died in the September, so I didn’t know anything else.

“I’d worked with my father since I was three or four years old, truthfully he taught me everything I knew,” he said.

Ben fondly recalls how his dad used to do the job.

“He would shout ‘rag bone, old iron!’ But you never knew what he was saying, it was like he had a plum in his mouth,” he said.

However, collections became quieter as time went by.

“We mainly put leaflets through the door which eliminated shouting.

“We used to call it billing, we’d put a card through the door and it said we will be back tomorrow and I always put my name and telephone number on these leaflets,” he said.

Ben then passed his driving test at 17 and swapped the horse and cart for a pick-up truck.

“I’ve still got the horses and carts, I’ve never parted with them, I just couldn’t bare to,” he said.

He now runs a fleet of five lorries with just three staff – himself, his son-in-law and a driver – collecting and recycling scrap metal from multiple engineering firms.

After more than half a century in the trade, Ben’s business has been shortlisted for the National Recycling Awards.

“We’ve got down to the final four and we’re all going to London and spending the night – I think it’s a bit of an honour for us to get this far,” he said.

He added life as a scrap merchant hasn’t always been easy.

“We’ve had times where there was nothing. We just cut our cloth accordingly,” he said.

Ben said he still remembers trudging through deep snow as a teenager just to make ends meet.

“When I was 15, I went on the bus from Huthwaite to Mansfield with a bag of copper which I sold for £8 because I couldn’t get the horse through the snow,” he added.

The father-of-four said he still has no plans to retire any time soon.

“I still get that buzz, when I’ve done something right, even though it’s exhausting.

“If I’ve got my health, I’ll do it until I die. I totally love it,” he said.