Mastermind of big royal move is set to retire
ASCHOOL worker has finally retired to his art work and bonsai trees after completing the biggest job of his life.
Peter Jackson, 61, from Macclesfield, has left his role as estates manager at the King’s School.
But rather than spend the last few years of his working life winding down, Peter led the team that planned the school’s relocation from Cumberland Street and Fence Avenue to its new £60m Prestbury campus.
Now he hopes to be almost as busy - but with his hobbies of mathematical abstract painting, tending to 31 bonsai trees and travelling to Japan.
Peter said: “Frankly, I don’t know how we did it, but I’d always promised I would do that job before I retired. I wasn’t going to leave my old school in the lurch.
“I think there must have been 5,000 packing crates from the two schools all boxed up by my team of four caretakers and two maintenance people and then there were hundreds and hundreds of deliveries from suppliers to the new school to be arranged and unloaded. After that, we all had to learn all about the new facilities, their lay out and how to operate all the modern technology that goes into buildings like these and naturally the snagging work.
“Now we are here it is much easier.
“The building has the very latest facilities and the day to day running is far simpler.
“At the old sites, I often I had to think now just how am I going to repair this without shutting down the whole school.”
Peter is a former King’s School pupil who left in 1976 to complete an electrical engineering apprenticeship.
He and his team have had responsibility for dayto-day operations, such as preparing for assemblies, musical and sporting events, parents evenings and social functions, as well as repair and maintenance of all the facilities.
Peter, who is married to
Stephanie with two adult children, has also worked in a Californian ski resort, at BBC Broadcasting House and for what was Macclesfield Borough Council as a facilities manager.
But he says nothing matched managing the relocation of two schools into one during the Covid crisis.
Peter said: “You have to know a bit of absolutely everything. I might have trained as an electrical engineer but in my 45 years working life I have learned anything and everything about looking after buildings.
“I have loved working for King’s and feel immensely proud to have been a custodian of what is one of Macclesfield’s great institutions with a 519 year history.
“It’s been wonderful to work in and around the children. I am not a teacher, but just the pupils’ presence makes you feel you are doing a really worthwhile job.”