A GREAT-grandmother who has become one of Britain's top adder experts is making her name as a public speaker.

Sylvia Sheldon has three children, six grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. But the other loves in her life include the adders and the fallow deer of the Wyre Forest.

Sylvia, 64, has lived in the last of six water-corn mills in Dowles Valley, Wyre Forest, for 20 years.

The property, built in 1757 and owned by the National Trust, includes three acres of wildflower meadows but is so difficult to get to that it is not open to the public.

It is ideally situated for Sylvia whose hobby of photography has helped her become an expert on the lifestyle of adders.

She supplies reports to English Nature, the Forestry Commission, National Biological Records and Worcestershire Wildlife Trust as well as providing advice to groups all over Britain.

She said: "I have just helped a group in the south of England which had to relocate an adder site and am also helping a student with his degree studies.

"Adders are not aggressive and only bite as a last form of defence. They are fascinating creatures which can live for 20 years. I know most of them by name and favourites include Pawn, Knight and Dennis.

"I used to live in Kidderminster where I drove a van for West End Bakery, worked in the carpet industry, in offices and as a care assistant - anything that fitted in with a family."

Sylvia, a voluntary warden with English Nature, is now well known as a speaker at clubs and societies in the area and would like to write a book on her studies.