Retired builder John Kirsop knows better than most that nothing lasts forever every major building he helped construct in Borehamwood has been pulled down.

The bricks he laid at Shenley Hospital, British International Pictures, Thatched Barn, Home of Rest for Horses and former Civic Hall have long since crashed to the ground, leaving behind only photographs and memories.

Originally from Wallsend, Mr Kirsop travelled to Borehamwood in 1927, at age 17, where his father Edward, a steeplejack, needed help with a building contract at British International Pictures. The rest of the family joined them in lodgings at Bullbaiters Farm.

Mr Kirsop, now 92 and living in Crown Road, helped to sound-proof studios, and built houses in Elstree Hill and Theobald Street.

He said: "The studios were not sound studios they were sheeted and did not have any sound protection from the buses or noises outside. Consequently, my father got the contract to line the inner-face of the studios with brickwork nine inches thick and for the full height of the buildings."

After marrying in 1930, when the family had moved to Essex Road, Mr Kirsop helped build the Thatched Barn, where he recalled millions of black beetles in the thatch.

In the early 1930s, his father was contracted by the late Sir John Laing to help build Shenley Hospital. Mr Kirsop built the chimney, while next to it his father built the water tower which has survived. Carts of bricks were pulled by horses, and in 1934 King George V opened the hospital.

Mr Kirsop recalled: "After the king and queen had passed, John Laing was walking round and he wanted to go into the boatswain's seat, used to haul builders to the top of the chimney.

"I happened to be waiting at the top to receive him, through a hole in the scaffold. He had pince-nez on his eyes and, as the ball-weight stopped as he was getting out, it knocked his glasses off, which fell to the bottom of the chimney.

"He did see enough to put a coin under a brick. Then he went down to find his glasses."

After the Home of Rest for Horses, Mr Kirsop, then living in Hillside Avenue, became a foreman for Bovis for 25 years.

While there, he recalled stopping for petrol at a crossroads, where a Scotsman, Mr Stirling, had two pumps and a wooden hut. Mr Stirling wanted to put up a name sign. Mr Kirsop suggested "Stirling Corner" and the rest is history.

After the war, Mr Kirsop returned to Bovis, before becoming clerk of works at MGM Studios for nine years.

In 1959, he became clerk of works at Elstree Rural District Council, helping to build a Civic Hall, swimming pool and 200 homes in Borehamwood and Shenley, before retiring at 65.