A woman who has worked in the same job since she was at school is celebrating her retirement after 49 years.

Janice Peters has hung up her calculator after clocking up almost half a decade at the same Lloyds Bank branch in New Road, Gravesend.

“My husband wanted me to do one more year and make it 50,” she said. “But the time felt right to go now.”

Janice, who got the job when she was just 16, said even back then she was good at saving.

“I didn’t really spend my first paycheck,” she said. “I saved it. I didn’t really know what I was saving for at that age but I knew I should save it.”

Janice, who is from Gravesend, was offered the job by her home economics teacher who was a friend of the family and whose husband worked at the bank.

She was delighted, as maths was her favourite subject at school.

“I was going to school to do my exams and then working at the bank on the days I didn’t have exams,” she added.

“It was great. You used to have to add up these long sheets of numbers.”

Over the years modern technology has taken over and Janice said lots of areas of the job have changed.

“You used to work in different departments such as returns one day, filing statements and cheque books another day, standing orders another day.

“There are no standing orders and chequebooks now. It’s all automated tills and you just help in whatever people need,” she said.

And it’s not just inside the office where Janice has seen changes.

Over the years Janice, who has worked under almost 20 managers, has seen the view from outside alter too.

“I was on the top floor of the three storey building for a while and there was a lovely view over the Thames.

“But when the St George’s Centre was built we lost the view.”

While the 66-year-old has worked at the same branch for her entire career she has had temporary moves to different offices, including the time two years ago when the whole building flooded and everyone was forced out.

“We were having building work done on the roof and it rained really heavily,” she recalled. “In the morning water was pouring down the stairs. It got in all the machines. It was very deep.

“We had to move to other branches for quite a few months.”

The building she worked in just before she retired was also not exactly the one she started in.

“It got demolished and we had to work in temporary offices in Parrock Street whilst they rebuilt it.”

You can have a stressful day and everyone is there for each other…

Throughout her 49 years with Lloyds, Janice has considered a career change but has always stayed where she knew.

“I’ve built up such great friendships with the people I work with, I wouldn’t want to jump into something else,” she said.

“Everyone pulls together. You can have a stressful day and everyone is there for each other. You are not left alone.”

Janice says her favourite time in the job was when she was seconded to work at a pilot business hub the branch set up in the town in the early 2000s.

“We used to have so much fun with Christmas parties and overnight stays places,” she explained. “The hub didn’t last long but we’ve all stayed good friends.”

And it’s not just within her work colleagues that Janice has found friends.

“I have watched customer’s families grow up. If I bump into them in town they stop for ages for a chat. It’s lovely.”

Having worked her last day the day before she took her pension on September 28 Janice is slowly adapting to retired life.

“It hasn’t really sunk in yet,” she said.

She is hoping to spend more time in her garden and may be talked into going on a cruise by friends.

But she says her main priority is to spend time visiting family in Yorkshire and Suffolk after Covid and lockdown restrictions kept them apart for so long.

“It’s time now,” she said.