A fond farewell as Mary retires.

A school secretary extraordinaire has retired after 34 years.

Mary Boardman has given more than three decades' dedicated service at Ingleby Greenhow Primary School, near Great Ayton.

She retired at the end of the Christmas term, and is now wondering how she is going to spend her life away from the North Yorkshire village she loves.

Mary, 61, now of Great Ayton, was born at Ingleby Greenhow and attended the old Ingleby Greenhow school as a youngster.

"I just love Ingleby Greenhow and I would move back again tomorrow if I could," she said.

"It's such a friendly village and a tight-knit community and I still attend the church there and other functions. Honestly, there's no place quite like it."

Mary became school secretary at Ingleby Greenhow Church of England Primary School in 1971.

Present head teacher, Gill Bottomley said: "Mary is a special character and will be missed by all.

"She welcomes everyone to the school with her breezy manner and knows all the parents by their first names.

"We will really miss her in January at the start of the new term and I shall probably be phoning her every day for advice."

Mary is now concentrating on husband Robert, and her two West Highland terriers, Bobbie and Sammy, and attempting to retain her title as women's singles indoor bowls champion at Ingleby Greenhow Village Hall.