Barry the Idle barber is about to take a rest.

After 44 years of trimming, clipping and shaving an estimated 250,000 heads, Barry Ashcroft, pictured, has decided to hang up his scissors.

Until recently Barry used to carry out some 50 cuts a day, but then he went part-time and now does about 20. The jolly hairdresser moved into his shop in Highfield Road, Idle, in 1959, loves Bradford Bulls and Yorkshire Cricket and often bursts into song as he works.

His customers get a taste of the musical repertoire he has built-up singing with Clayton parish church choir and Bradford's Savoy mixed choir which performs for charity.

He set up his one-man business at the age of 21 - with a Beatles' type hair do - after leaving his job as regimental barber with the Army Pay Corps.

Before that he had served his apprenticeship as a barber in Keighley after leaving school.

And Barry remembers charging 2s 6d for an adult hair cut, 2s for boys and 1s 6d for pensioners, and the old cut throat razors still stand in a jar on his work top.

Now he charges £4 for boys and pensioners and £5 for adults and his customers still say it is good value for money.

Many people who came for cuts when he first opened the shop are still customers and some are now in their nineties.

And his jovial, traditional service has led to TV appearances, and meetings with stars over the years.

Barry, who has stoically remained a traditional barber while many other salons went unisex, said he had seen hair lengths go full circle through the years.

"It went short back and sides to much longer and now it's back again to shorter than ever. I cut hair for customers of all ages and do the modern styles, too.

"The property won't continue as a barber's shop. It will be the end of an era. There will be no more Barry the Idle Barber."

But Barry says he will carry on cutting hair for the males of his family, including trendy grandsons Samuel, 11, and William, five.

Sam Sanson, of Kings Road, Bolton, who has been a customer for 15 years, said: "You get a first class service and you can feel the jovial atmosphere as soon as you come in, plus a very good hair cut. He is also a very good confidante."

Barry, who will shut up shop at the end of May at the age of 64, said he would carry on singing and walk, potter in the garden and get under partner Joyce Longthorn's feet.

"Barry the barber is going to be idle and I want to thank the people of Idle and elsewhere for putting up with me," he said.