Come rain or shine, sleet, snow or frost, George Bailey gets up at 6am each morning and cycles from his home in Knaves Acre, Headcorn, the quarter of a mile to Oldfields newsagents in the High Street.

Mr Bailey is the 'paperboy' for the business.

For the past 16 years, he has spent around an hour every day - including weekends - delivering the papers to ensure his fellow villagers have something to read with their breakfast toast and marmalade.

Nothing too unusual about that, you might think, except that on Sunday the 24th of this month, Mr Bailey will celebrate his 80th birthday.

He said: "I'm only carrying on with what I started. I first did a paper round as an 11-year-old when I was growing up in Croydon."

Now he is one of five "paperboys" at Oldfields though he confessed he was probably older than any of the others by "a good 50 years."

He explained: "Newsagents find it quite difficult to get school-boys to do paper rounds these days, because of the difficulty of finishing in time to catch the bus into school - when school is operating at least."

His rounds have changed over the years, but he currently delivers 31 papers each day.

He said: "I have to be careful. The roads have got so much busier. I take my time!"

But he enjoys the job - mostly.

He said: "It's no fun when it's raining of course, which it seems to have been every day lately.

"But it's good exercise and keeps me fit."

Mr Bailey has been married to Enid for 55 years and the couple have lived in Headcorn for 50 years. He claims she doesn't mind his getting up so early.
The couple have two adult sons - Simon, 54, who lives in Devon, and Jason, 52, in Maidstone.

Sadly, because of Covid lockdown, Mr Bailey does not expect to see either of them when he celebrates his birthday.

He said: "It's disappointing."

He said he also rarely got to see his customers at the moment because of lockdown.

He said: "Most of them are elderly and sometimes I would do odd jobs for them like taking their letters to the post."

Mr Bailey said he had no plans to retire, but said: "I hope when I do, they will find someone to deliver the paper to me!"

Mr Bailey declared himself an ardent fan of the Kent Messenger. He said: "I've taken it every week since we moved here.

"It's more important than ever now, I have to look in the obituaries every week just to make sure I'm not there!"

Daniel Lavender, relief manger at Oldfields, said: "George taught me everything there was to know about the paper rounds when I first started.

"He's also taught all the other paper-boys.

"He has been a rock, out in all weathers, and if for any reason one of the others can't do their round, George steps in for us.

"He's a great asset to the business."

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