ONE of Herefordshire’s last ‘characters’, the inimitable Wizard has retired.

Like all good characters, Wizard needs little introduction – especially on his home turf at Lyonshall and Kington.

He is a mine of information about the past, rattling off stories about the people and places of this area of the county from more than half a century ago.

Born Michael East at Lyonshall nearly 70 years ago, Wizard earned his nickname from the long hair he sported at the time when Roy Wood of Wizard fame was a a huge pop icon.

Wizard is a pillar of local society, chairman of Lyonshall Memorial Hall Committee for one thing, a member of the church choir, and when he’s not reading lessons in St Michael’s and All Angels at Lyonshall, Wizard has been known to read passages from Geoffrey Croft’s Hereford is Heaven.

Wizard, who has just retired from his job at Kington Building Supplies, might even be persuaded to produce his own reminiscences of times long past in his own community.

His recollections are not all about “swede bashing and tractor dramas” though they do play a part.

He remembers discovering ancient cobbles in the street at Kington while digging up drains under orders from the local surveyor. “They were just a foot beneath the road surface,” he says.

An excellent raconteur, he can tell stories using the old Herefordshire vernacular: for instance one character who often dribbled down his waistcoat would have been “kiddling down his wes’cut”.

These were times when communities were strongly linked. At Lyonshall, the vicar, the Rev George Worsop-Hyde pressed villagers into staging regular theatrical productions.

With his 70th milestone looming next year, Wizard is not sure how he will mark the event. Nearly a decade ago, he celebrated his 60th by attending a concert by “one of the finest bands”, Half Man, Half Biscuit.

“For some reason, the bouncers chucked me out, I don’t know why,” he says. “I only heard two songs and that was it. Fancy a 60-year-old being thrown out!”

Could there be a chance he will mark his big birthday in 2018 with the publication of his book? Many living in Kington certainly hope so.