A Flambards employee has hung up her duster as she retires after 40 years looking after the theme park's Victorian Village.

Verena Scholes, 69, is leaving the park as she moves from her home in Trewennack to enjoy her retirement on the south Devon coast.

She started working in the cafeteria in 1976, but was soon invited to help Audrey Kingsford-Hale, one of the park's owners, when she started on her new project: the Victorian Village.

She said: "When she built it, I helped her putting the shops together, kitting them out. And I've carried on ever since.

"I have such wonderful memories. It was lovely working with all the lovely things in the village. I feel proud that it's such a nice place, to see the way it's grown."

Asked which of the shops in the village was her favourite, Verena said she liked the milliner's most of all.

She said: "There's just such lovely things, hats and capes and all ladies things."

Verena, who is in remission from cancer and has two operations on her knees coming up, has said it is "about time to hang up my duster."

She said: "For 40 years I've loved absolutely every minute of it. It's been a wonderful working life, the previous owners and the new owners were all wonderful. And the people who I work with have been just like one large family."

Verena said Flambards had been "wonderful for Helston and Cornwall."

She called it a "special place," and added: "Everybody likes it when they visit, and you can't say better than that really."

Entertainments supervisor Dean Woods praised Verena for her dedication and hard work, and said: "There's attention to detail, and then there's Verena Scholes."

He said: "She's just part of Flambards, right from the very beginning."

At a leaving party at the park, Verena was presented with flowers and gifts, as well as a large cake which the staff all shared along with a glass of bubbly.

Dave Redhead, who has worked with Verena for many years, said she was the "most wonderful woman."

In a speech, he said: "The people here, you can see the respect and love that you have generated.

"Words can't express the time and effort you have put in here right from the beginning.

"Everybody here loves you dearly and we just want to say thank you and wish you a happy retirement."