TO say Laurie Bradford knows Oxford’s New Theatre from back to front is factually correct.

For half of her near 30 years working there she worked in the busy front ticket office and for the other half she has been the cheerful face at the stage door.

However, after three decades she has decided to bring down the curtain on her career which she has enjoyed from start to finish.

She said: "My job is my hobby. Going to work at the New Theatre is a joy."

It was only by chance that she and her family came to Oxford many years ago. When she was eight years old, her father George Ryan decided the family should move from their Dublin home to England.

Letting fate decide their location was narrowed down to Birmingham or Oxford. They flipped a coin, which landed on heads and meaning the family was on a one way trip to the city of dreaming spires.

She did not immediately move into the theatre world, but for some time worked in London with a company producing guided missiles, requiring her to sign the Official Secrets Act.

It was only when she answered an advertisement inviting people with office work experience to help during the pantomime season that she landed up at the New Theatre.

Mrs Bradford, who has two sons, a daughter and five grandchildren, is a confirmed ‘people person’, which is one of the reasons she has had such an enjoyable time at work.

However, this has occasionally got her in trouble with management. On time she allowed an elderly woman to have a concessionary ticket, something to which she was not entitled, because she didn’t have enough cash for the full price.

But overall Mrs Bradford says this approach has served her well in dealing with audience members and colleagues alike.

She said: “I always believed that if you treated people well they would come again.

"Why turn someone away and lose them for ever?

“Everyone likes to be made welcome. They are here to work but a cheerful greeting is important."

She has a lengthy list of favourite artists who have appeared over the years, including Bonnie Langford, Julian Cleary, Daniel O’Donnell, the late Rik Mayall, Jody Prenger, Anita Dobson and many more. She also has a list of those whose attitude left her less than impressed, whom she preferred not to name.

On September 30, she will take in a few homemade cakes, say goodbye to her colleagues and head home to Derwent Avenue, Headington.