Mick retires from Cambridge tool shop Mackay’s after 46 years and 37,000 miles
The year 1977 was the year when the late Queen Elizabeth II celebrated her Silver Jubilee and the year that the punk movement took hold. It was also the year that Mick Willis started work at Mackay’s, the tool shop located in East Road, Cambridge, which was founded in 1912.
After 46 years and three months of serving the community through working in the shop, Mick retired at the age of 80 on Friday, June 23.
Neil Mackay, joint managing director of Mackay’s, said that Mick used to cycle to work every day, from Fulbourn to Cambridge, and did so on his last day at work, despite his wife offering to give him a lift home after a presentation that had taken place in the shop in his honour.
“We estimate he did around 37,000 miles back and forth – rain or shine,” said Neil, “I often used to offer to give him a lift when it was raining but he always turned me down. Quite remarkable.”
Neil added: “He had his health issues a few years back and cycling he said was what kept him on the straight and narrow.”
He noted that Mick, who initially worked in the shop’s metals warehouse, had a “magic touch”, especially when it came to working with people from less privileged backgrounds: “He really set people on the right path; he used to do a lot of work with what was called Papworth Industries.”
Papworth Industries was a Cambridgeshire colony for sufferers of tuberculosis founded in 1916.
Neil continued: “We used to – and still do – take a lot of work experience lads on and Mick used to take them under his wing. He seemed to have a sort of magic touch in managing to just engender a lot of enthusiasm and confidence in the youngsters.
“On one occasion, I was invited by Papworth Industries to go and give a talk and they said that they couldn’t work out why we were so successful with all the placements we had, with people who were struggling normally.
“I said, ‘I’ll bring along the reason for our success’ so I took him [Mick] along to this conference – they had people come from all over the country.
“Mick stood in front of them and talked – he’d never talked to a group of people like that at a conference before – and by the end of the meeting the audience was in tears and they all said, ‘Can you open a shop in our area because we have terrible trouble making placements?’ He just spoke from the heart.
“That’s just one example. He’s a very hard-working, salt-of-the-earth type of person who will be sadly missed at the shop.”
Neil says he and his staff “had a good party” for Mick and reveals that as part of his retirement they presented him with a year-long pass to Newmarket to enjoy the racing.
“I was unaware but at the weekends he used to cycle all the way from Fulbourn to Newmarket gallops to watch the horses training – very early in the morning, about 5 o’clock!”
Ever the dedicated employee, Mick told the Cambridge Independent that he actually got up and got ready to go to work the following Monday following his retirement, before realising that he no longer had to.
“He admitted that “it seems strange after getting up every morning and cycling to East Road” but said that he’s still managing to get out and about on his bike.
“I’ve been out this morning, cycling round,” said Mick, “I went through Teversham and up to Quy, then back here – about 12 miles altogether.”
Mick says he had “a brilliant time” working at Mackay’s and that he hasn’t a single bad memory of his time there.
“At the moment I’m just getting acclimatised!” he laughed, adding: “I’d just like to thank all the directors at Mackay’s, they were really good and they just left me to it, to do what they wanted me to do.”