AFTER trying a number of jobs, Jack Dearden thought landing a job at the local brewery would last only a few weeks.

But this week Jack said farewell to his workmates when he called time after 40 years.

Jack, from Daisyfield, in Blackburn, was presented with an inscribed carriage clock from colleagues at Blackburn-based Daniel Thwaites at a send off presentation at the company's visitor centre.

Jack said he never planned on staying with the brewery but was not bitter that he lasted so long with them. He said: "It's been a wonderful place to work but I never thought of it as a long term thing when I started.

"I had worked at three or four different places on leaving school before getting the chance in Thwaites' bottling department which was then in Quarry Street. It didn't take me long to decide that Thwaites' was the place I wanted to be and I have filled a variety of roles including canning, customer services, beer recovery and a spell as fork lift truck driver."

Jack is married to Pearl and a proud Blackburnian hailing from the Griffin area. Now in his early 60s Jack plans to take things easy.