The man who oversaw the breaking up of the Royal Navy’s most famous battleship has spoken of his affection for HMS Warspite.

But Joe Barnes fell short of backing a call for a commemorative plaque at the site of its final resting place in Wolverhampton.

The ship, which served in both world wars and carried the most battle honours of any Royal Navy ship in the 1939-45 conflict, was dismantled and brought to the city to be sold for scrap by the Wolverhampton Metal Company.

The site is being redeveloped and resident John Barrett has called for a memorial to the ship there.

Mr Barnes, aged 91, a director of the former Wednesfield company, said it would not be appropriate as the Warspite was not dismantled in Wolverhampton.

But he revealed how wood from the vessel was used to build pews at Tettenhall Church. He even made a bedroom suite for his daughter from Warspite teak.

Mr Barnes, a former messenger boy who worked his way up to number three in the company, now lives in Fordhouses, Wolverhampton, where he has a keepsake piece of wood from the ship.

He said: “There were hundreds of tons of teak 18 inches thick all around the outside of the ship. All the brass, copper, aluminium and gun metal was sent up to Wednesfield; all the steel went to T.W.Ward on the north-east coast and Briton Ferry in South Wales to be made into steel plates.”

Another former worker, whose father also worked at the company, says the ship’s wheel and bell are believed to be buried at Wolverhampton Metal Company’s Well Lane site.

Eileen Monaghan’s late father Sam Everitt was sent down to the beached ship at Penzance to help choose which metal came back to Wolverhampton.

A memorial to the ship was erected on the quay in Cornwall where members of the Warspite Sailors Association meet every September.