Great-gran is still working three shifts a week - at the age of 96

A great-gran from Cheshire believed to be Britain's oldest shop worker is still working three shifts a week at the grand age of 96 - and has no plans to retire. Irene Astbury opened Pet Food Supplies Ltd in Macclesfield, Cheshire in March 1981 and she is still working there more than 40 years on.

She prices up items behind the till, looks after the company's invoices and keeps an eye on the rest of her employees. Up until the pandemic, Irene worked five days a week at the pet supplies store at the age of 94.

But due to her family struggling to get her to work, great-grandmother-of-seven Irene now works 25 and a half hours a week over three days. Irene, whose own gran lived to be 102, said: "I'm not giving up until they tell me clear off.

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"I have nothing better to do, I want to keep my eye on them all. It's better than sitting at home and moping and I can keep my eye on all of the younger ones. I can still be on my feet, and that's what matters.

"I've got no plans to stop going - or I can't keep my eye on them all then. I don't want to be sat at home. I enjoy it, I enjoy the company and the customers."

Irene first opened the shop - then a launderette - with her late husband Les in March 1981. They converted it to a pet shop soon after. At first she worked full-time, while also working as a homemaker in the mornings and evenings.

When Les died in 2007, her two grandchildren Gayle Parks, 36, and Stuart Parks, 33, became partners with her. Gayle now runs the shop while Irene, who lives with her only daughter Lynn on a farm in Sandbach, Cheshire, works as much as she can.

Gayle said: "We joke that she says