BRIAN Stockdale, an employee of Spooner, has retired after completing 57 years and one day of service with the Ilkley company.

A presentation and speech took place between Brian and the company’s CEO, Stephen Clarke.

Brian joined Spooner as an apprentice on April 24, 1962 earning £2 6s 8d a week and has worked his way up through the company and seen a magnitude of changes.

He has travelled the world commissioning Spooner’s industrial processing equipment which is all manufactured at the Railway Road site in Ilkley. On his first day Brian cycled to work from the Bolton Abbey area aged just 15.

Brian currently lives in Burley-in-Wharfedale.

A Spooner spokesperson said: “He will be sadly missed at Spooner as a well-respected member of the team, but will no doubt be spending a lot of time on the golf course!”

Spooner Industries was established in 1932 by Yorkshire inventor, William Wycliffe Spooner initially providing drying machines to the textile industry. Spooner has undergone many changes, but has survived economic hardship, particularly through the downturn in UK manufacturing, emerging a leaner, more progressive organisation.

Today a thorough understanding of heat transfer, air flotation technology and pollution abatement allows the company to design bespoke solutions to a growing range of processes and industries including paper, converting, food, non-woven, environmental and metal.