‘I feel I’ve made a mark’: the man who built homes for 60,000 swifts

Retired salesman John Stimpson was so moved by the cries of birds unable to find nests, he decided to act. Now he has made enough boxes to house half the UK's swifts

Retired salesman John Stimpson is 80 today. He will be celebrating with a cake at Slimming World this evening, followed by dinner with his family on Friday. Stimpson has one achievement in particular to mark: he has just completed his goal of building 30,000 swift boxes, which could house half of the UK's breeding population of 60,000 pairs.

Stimpson has been making these peculiarly shaped boxes for 13 years using three saws and three drills in his garage attached to his bungalow near Ely in Cambridgeshire. What started as a retirement hobby morphed into a full-time job after orders increased, and he sometimes works 13-hour days to get them all done. He sells them for 20, which is enough to cover his costs.