A LOYAL worker has retired after 49 years of service at the same company.

Paul Carr, 64, had been working at Transcal Engineering in Racecourse Road, Pershore since he left school before finally retiring last Thursday.

Mr Carr worked as a fitter and welder at the firm making a range of different vehicles from military vehicles to lorries.

He said: "I used to enjoy the work a lot, but now I am looking forward to retiring.

"In the last few years it has just been a job. It was very convenient as I am from Pershore and I don't drive.

"I think 49 years in one place is a lot, perhaps too much.

"The company has got a lot bigger since I started working here, there are a lot more staff and I have lost count of how many people I have worked with.

"We have been in the same building for 43 years, although when I started we were in a building next to the station for six years and we spent a year back near the station after part of the building got burnt on a weekend a few years back, no-one knew how it started, we were told it was an electrical fault.

"It took a while to rebuild the front of the building, but half of the staff continued there unaffected in the rest of the building.

"I am going to Sri Lanka next week as a way of celebrating the retirement."