Retiring Wigan wood turner wants to sell off £28,000 worth of pieces for charity

Fred Worthington, who turns 80 this month, says his eyesight isn’t what it used to be and he needs to dedicate his time looking after his ailing wife Doreen.

And so after years of making unique pieces of woodwork for sale at craft fayres he is downing his tools and trying to sell all of his remaining stock which he estimates to be worth £28,000!

His home on Queensway, Wigan, is an Aladdin’s cave of carefully crafted and sometimes quirky items large and small. Yet what he has on show is only about a third of the stock beacuse there is so much of it.

Ideally Fred would like someone to come along and buy the lot then sell it at a profit to benefit charities.

He first hit the headlines back in 1997 by announcing that he was closing his butchery firm on Wigan Lane to take up wood turning full time.

Fred had already established Wigan Woodcraft Club two years earlier and with between 40 and 50 members attending Wigan Conservative Club it was thriving.

The club continues to this day and now meets at Platt Bridge Civic Centre although Fred hasn’t attended since the Covid pandemic struck.

But an era is ending with this decision.

Fred said: “It’s time to call it a day. I used to go to craft fayres but my eyes aren’t good for night driving anymore and I need to look after my wife who hasn’t been so well.

"So I am looking to sell everything. I would love it if someone were to come along and buy everything as a job lot for £10,000. They could make a 100 per cent profit on it and it would be good if the money from the sales went to charity.

"If someone was setting themselves up in business selling items like this, it would be a great place to start.”

Fred said that even as a child he would like tinkering with a making things and discovered early on he had a gift for wood turning (not carving – “that takes too long,” he says!) He would buy his wood in Longridge and his garage became his workshop. One of his lines has been hedgehog boxes for charities.

Anyone interested in buying Fred’s items either singly or in bulk can ring him on 01942 375858.