Wages clerk Angela Withey is preparing to celebrate 50 years of working for Trowbridge beds manufacturer Airsprung.

Mrs Withey, 65, joined the company at the age of 15, when it was based in Cradle Bridge, on April 21, 1964, and has been overseeing staff pay ever since.

She has worked in the same office at its Canal Road premises for decades and seen a lot of changes in the way the company works.

Mrs Withey, who lives in Silver Street Lane with husband Michael, said: “Obviously, we had no computers back when I started and so we worked out the wages on an old-fashioned adding machine.

“We’d collect the cash from the bank and give it out to the staff. Can you imagine anyone walking through town with a briefcase full of cash these days?

“I’ll carry on for as long as I’ve got my health, and I think I’m doing a good job. I feel part of the furniture and we are a big family.”

The best memory of her career was being named Miss Airsprung in 1978 and representing the company at the Birmingham Furniture Show.

Grandmother Mrs Withey, who has one grown-up daughter, Lisa Brownlee, said: “They had the ceremony down at the old Civic Centre in Trowbridge.

“I had entered two years on the trot and finished as runner up, and eventually I won. I wasn’t going to give up until I took the crown.”

Airsprung will be holding a party and presenting Mrs Withey with an accoloade to honour her five decades of loyal service next week.

Company accountant Jackie Lewis, who has worked with Mrs Withey for 30 years, said: “If she was a stick of rock and you split her in half she would say Airsprung down the middle.

“Angela makes sure everyone is looked after before herself and is often here until silly o’clock as she doesn’t want to leave until the job is done.”