After four decades of helping to prepare and serve school dinners Eva Humphrey has decided to hang up her apron for the final time.

Thongsley Fields Primary School in Huntingdon said goodbye to its 73-year-old assistant cook last week.

Mrs Humphrey started there in 1973, joining a team of 10 as, in her words, “a plain old kitchen assistant”.

“It was green overalls and what I used to call nurses hats back then,” said Mrs Humphrey. “Then it went to a white uniform, with wrap-over pinnies and now it’s trousers and a T-shirt, which is much better.”

The menu has changed too, with former staples such as semolina and cabbage now rarely seen. “It was ordinary dinners,” said mum-of-five Mrs Humphrey. “We used to have stodgy pudding, which was lovely. I’ve enjoyed working there, if I didn’t I would’ve left years ago. But now my body is saying, ‘pack up, let someone younger have a go’.”