THE secretary to bosses of a Kidderminster carpet firm has taken her final note and retired after 51 years with the company.

Doreen Davies, 66, worked for three generations of the Adam family, at Adam Carpets, based in Birmingham Road.

She was just under 15 when she joined the business, in 1954, as an office junior, and worked her way up through the administration support ranks.

Miss Davies, of East Street, Kidderminster was most recently secretary to sales director, Tony Hardwick, and managing director, David Adam, having originally started working for Raleigh Adam - David's father - when he was managing director and owner.

In those days, the company was known as W & R R Adam. Miss Davies has also lately worked for David Adam's son, Christopher, who is a director of the company.

She was born in Weoley Castle, Birmingham and was just six months old when her family moved to Chaddesley Corbett "to get away from the bombs", with the country at war with Germany. The family then moved to Kidderminster in 1948.

She attended infants school in Chaddesley and then went to Lea Street and Sladen schools in Kidderminster.

In her early days at Adam, she said: "I just did all the different things in the office and gradually moved up."

She added: "Not many people stay in the same job for 51 years," she explained, "If you're happy in a job, why move? Most people move for money but I was happy. I enjoyed it all the time."

Mr Hardwick described her as "the perfect secretary". Among retirement gifts she was presented with last Friday was a hand-tufted picture of herself.