SELF-MADE businessman Ben Perrin has died in hospital, aged 87.

The former Tyldesley mill worker with his late wife, Margaret, and son Bill, ran a string of shops in Leigh, Tyldesley, Atherton and Hindley.

Ben Perrin inherited his mother's business acumen and appetite for work. To clothe and feed her three children she turned the front room of her Hough Lane home in to a shop.

He helped swell the family kitty by working on Lot Burns' Tyldesley farm and selling mum's home-made pies.

Having turned down the chance of a Grammar School scholarship Ben went to work in the mill but at 32 he and his wife began standing markets selling pots, pans and gift ware.

Soon they opened their first shop in Atherton then opened up on Market Street in half of what is now the Steak House. They followed with premises in Tyldesley, then Union Street, Leigh, a warehouse in Naylor's Yard, Atherton and then in to Hindley.

"Dad was still cashing-up at 83," said his son, Bill, "and only stopped driving about 18 months ago."

Margaret, Ben's wife for 56 years, died four years ago. Bill Perrin still runs the Hindley branch but other branches have closed and premises leased out.

A funeral service was at Chowbent Unitarian Chapel followed by cremation at Howe Bridge.

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