Born in Midsomer Norton in 1942 his family background in the Building Trade takes him back to before 1700 in the Dorset village of Stalbridge, when came his grandfather Walter Parsons, a stonemason, to work on the construction of Radstock Methodist Church in 1901.

Jeff started his training on the bottom rung of the ladder as an apprentice bricklayer/stonemason for the Bath firm of Mortimers at the age of sixteen. Following success in his City and Guilds exams and subsequently obtaining a Higher National Certificate in Building, he worked for ten years as Assistant Surveyor in the Engineer’s Department of Bradford on Avon UDC, qualifying in the process as a Municipal Building Surveyor.

Following Local Government Reorganisation in 1974 he transferred to the Building Control Team at West Wiltshire DC and, shortly after, obtained a post with the Bath City Council Building Control Team as District Surveyor. He stayed with Bath and progressed to the position of Principal Surveyor in the Building Control Team, and acting as Chief Surveyor for twelve months. He faced another Local Government Reorganisation in 1996 when he was transferred to B&NES and took over the management of the Keynsham Building Control Team.

Having recently graduated from the University of the West of England as MBA he was disappointed to find his new job at Keynsham surplus to operational requirements due to an internal reorganisation and took voluntary severance in 1997.

So what next at the age of 55? Here was an opportunity to set up his own Building Surveying practice, providing a service to the local domestic market in Bradford on Avon, where he was then living and subsequently to the Midsomer Norton/Radstock area when the family moved here in 2002. Coming home again!

Changes in Legislation, particularly Planning, together with the recent loss of his youngest son who helped in the practice, took the shine off what had been a very interesting 24 years in private practice and so the decision was made – “Shut up the shop”.

Spare time will not be wasted, however, as he will continue on his many excursions into family and local history research. This,together with his love of music and writing, will keep him active for a while yet. But looking forward to a more restful time at home with Jane, his wife of 52 years and following the fortunes of their two sons and their families, Mark, in London and Andrew, “down under” in Australia.