TOWNSFOLK turned out in force last week to bid a fond farewell to an Ottery bank worker who retired after 40 years of serving the community.

TOWNSFOLK turned out in force last week to bid a fond farewell to an Ottery bank worker who retired after 40 years of serving the community.

Wendy Board, 60, left her role as counter manager at Barclays on Silver Street last Friday amid a flurry of well-wishers.

Mrs Board described her last day of work as "amazing". She added: "My house looks like a florists at the moment, I think I had about 68 cards in the end. It was incredible, the number of customers who came in on the last day made it truly excellent."

"What I will miss the most is contact with people who have become friends and colleagues. I've met some amazing people over the years.

At the moment it feels like I'm on holiday, and there's a nice feeling of freedom. I'm looking forward to spending time with my grandchildren and hopefully my husband will retire next year so we can do a bit of caravanning. There's certainly plenty to look forward to."

Having started out as a shorthand typist at Barclay's Sidmouth branch in the 1960s, Ottery born Mrs Board progressed to counter assistant then counter manager working in Honiton and Ottery as she did so.

She added: "Over the years the processed haven't really changed but the technology is totally different. Everything was done manually when I started, we used to add up things by hand.