A DEDICATED employee was so determined to hit his half-century at his place of work that he put his retirement on hold for two weeks.

But now Mick Reynolds has called it a day after working for the Worcester News for exactly 50 years.

Born in Hallow, 65-year-old Mr Reynolds joined the then News and Times in 1956, when it was based in the Trinity, Worcester city centre.

As an eager 15-year-old he became a linotype operator, which meant keying the words written by journalists into a machine which forged molten metal into type to be stamped on to the page by the press.

He then became a paste-up artist and camera operator - sticking pieces of the page together and then photographing it so it could be printed.

Computers changed all that and Mr Reynolds finished his career sitting in front of a screen as a pre-press technician. He has been retrained three times, went on strike once and has seen eight managing directors come and go.

He said: "It was very different. When we worked with hot metal, groups of people would come around and be amazed by how it came together. The metal was dirty and heavy work, you'd get ink all in your hands, nothing like today.

"Paste-up was my favourite job. There were about 60 of us and we always had a laugh."

"One of the changes I've seen has been the attitude to the boss. I always called the foreman mister whoever.

"And health and safety is so different. In those days we were working with hot, molten metal. There is no chance they would let you do that now."

He also recalls how the paper recorded historical events.

"I remember the front page for Winston Churchill's death was all prepared. We kept pulling it out every time he was ill, but he kept getting better."

Mr Reynolds, of Henwick Park, St John's, Worcester, met his wife Pauline roller-skating in the now demolished Public Hall, in the Cornmarket. They married in 1964 and have two daughters, Samantha, 37, and Donna, 34.

He is eager to spend his new-found free time with his two grandsons, Matthew, 15, and three-year-old Oliver, as well as pick up some old hobbies.

"I'm going to start playing golf again, I'll go mountain biking and I might go fishing."