HEATHER Morris sent in a photograph of the Pressed Steel 25-Year Club dinner in 1968 when 106 workers were recognised for long service (Memory Lane, July 25).

I received my watch on Friday, April 10, 1964, when there were 205 recipients.

It was held at the Randolph Hotel, Oxford, and was the 12th annual dinner.

I still have the invitation card with the list of new members, the menu and the cabaret artists.

The menu was smoked salmon, roast duckling, bigarrade, buttered peas and croquette potatoes, bombe glacee cassata or cheese board, and coffee. The wine was Anjo Rose de Cabernet.

The cabaret artists were Felix Bowness (comedy compere), the Coleman Sisters (dancing duo), Gwen Overton and Clive Stock (voices in harmony) and Trevor Smith (piano).

The star turn was the late Bob Monkhouse.

Before the dinner, he sat and had a drink with four of us and asked if we had any off-beat stories about any of the bosses.

Wives were not invited to the dinner, but they received a bouquet of flowers from the company that day.

I still have a memento – I took a cutting from a rose in the bouquet, planted it in one of my greenhouses and it still blooms well every year.

I have a copy of the Pressed Steel in-house magazine, The Link, for spring 1960 and the newcomers to the 25-Year Club that year totalled 244 men and women, making a total of 1,135 who had qualified.

The magazine also included an article that some 2,200 children of Pressed Steel workers attended the pantomime at the New Theatre.

So many wanted to go that visits were arranged for two Saturday matinees. Some Oxford Mail photographs of the children were included in the magazine.

I have a cutting from the Oxford Mail of Friday, April 10, 1964, when another 205 workers joined the 25-Year Club, bringing the total to 1,997.

I joined Pressed Steel in 1938. I served in the RAF from 1941-46, returned to Pressed Steel in 1946 and was made redundant in 1984 aged 63, thanks to Maggie Thatcher and her friends.

I wonder what happened to the £5m profit that the company made.

BILL ADAMS Long Lane Littlemore Oxford