After more than 50 years in business in Oxford, Mr John Chaundy, aged 74, still goes to work every day, "to see my friends."

Mr Chaundy is Oxford's typewriter man. Apprenticed during the First World War to William Hunt (of Hunt & Broadhurst), he learnt servicing and selling thoroughly, and, in 1922, set up for himself in a classroom of an old school in Bridge Street, Osney.

After a few months there, he moved to 49 Cornmarket Street for a period, but finally settled in Turl Street, in premises owned by Lincoln College.

It was there that he really established his business, selling and servicing typewriters for the University, and for firms and individuals in the city.

Eventually, in the 60s, he was obliged to move to his present office in The Plain, because Lincoln were planning to extend their library.

"Many of my customers have been coming back to me for years, and say they'd never let anyone else touch their machines. And they're all my friends, they come to talk. So I can't give up coming in to work, even if I wanted to."

Mr Chaundy is an Oxfordshire man, and is proud of his family's ramifications throughout the area. He was born in Chipping Norton, one of a family of seven. When his mother died while he was still a boy, the family moved to Headington, where he's lived ever since.

John Chaundy, a builder, was Sheriff of Oxford in the early 1800s. There was a Chaundy's Place in old St Ebbe's, and there still is Chaundy House, a block of flats in Headington.

F.W. Chaundy, tobacconist, appears in an 1850 print of the old Roebuck Inn in Market Street, and in the 1880s another John Chaundy was a "Carver, Gilder, Printseller and Herald Painter" in Broad Street.

Mr Chaundy describes himself as a common tradesman. In fact, tradesmen like him are becoming increasingly uncommon.

He remembers when Cornmarket was full of locally-run businesses, and can recall all the old names: Grimbly Hughes, Lunn, Morton, Hall, Blagrove, Alden, Pearson. Some of the families still live in the area, but very few are still in business.

The breed of craftsman-businessman is dying out, and is all the more precious for its rarity.

That Mr Chaundy is a skilled craftsman cannot be doubted, particularly when he shows off some vintage typewriters he used to repair as a young man.

He has an example of a very early portable, in a beautifully shaped wooden case. It bears the name Blickensderfer of Cheapside, was made in the USA, and the type is on a removable metal disc, the obvious forerunner of today's "golfball."

Mr Chaundy also worked on the early Hammonds, which had shuttles adaptable to all possible scripts, including Sanscrit, and a huge variety of scientific symbols.

Mr Chaundy's great love, apart from his business, is golf. He is President and an honorary Life Member of the Oxford City, Southfield, Golf club, and has contacts throughout the golfing world. He still plays a full day, and can beat youngsters a third of his age.

There is no doubt that Mr Chaundy's memoirs would be worth reading - lots of people are trying to persuade him to get writing !

He recalls being tipped a shilling from an old-fashioned ring purse by Professor Dyson (of Dyson Perrins fame); he knew Lord Cherwell, and a host of other University notables. But, above all, he is rooted deep in the City of Oxford, and in Oxfordshire.

It's rare nowadays for people to stay in one place long enough to really belong. John Chaundy has found content and earned respect through years of honest, useful work in the city. Now he is definitely one of Oxford's Grand Old Men.