This is Mick.
2023 marked the amazing milestone of 60 years’ service for Estate worker Mick Crittall…he’s quite literally worked here as ‘man and boy’!
Mick came to live on the Birling Estate as a very small child, when his dad took on a role with us as a forester, and so started his lifelong passion for tractors. As soon as he was able to leave school, he put that passion to work…and he’s been working here ever since.
He started in the woods with his Dad, then progressed to being our head tractor driver – in fact, the Massey Ferguson tractor he’s sitting on in the photo is the original one he used when he started here! When he married Jo in 1969, they moved into a house on the Estate and raised their family here.
In recent years, Mick has graduated back to the woods again. At one point harvesting a block of mature conifers he had planted with his father, and then replanting it for the second time. There are not many people who can lay claim to that!
We were thrilled to be able to surprise him with a gathering of friends and colleagues recently to mark the occasion. Appropriately, it was held in one of the farm buildings, with the smell of diesel, mud and dirty overalls to ensure Mick felt completely ‘at home’!
Long may we continue to see him trundling around the Estate on his beloved 1962 Massey Ferguson tractor. A huge part of our fantastic team, and a font of knowledge.
Thank you Mick.
(Thanks also to Julian Anderson for the photo)
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