A 100-year-old woman received a special visit from the company where she worked for more than half a century.

Winnie Mason marked her 100th birthday last month surrounded by friends and family.

After reading about her story in the Evening Mail, her former employers at the Ulverston-based Oxley Group said they wanted to meet Mrs Mason.

The current chief executive of the Oxley Group, Martin Blakstad, paid her a surprise visit at the Risedale care home in Abbey Road, Barrow, where Mrs Mason lives.

Mr Blakstad was joined by the group's marketing manager Jayne Moorby, Mrs Mason's daughter-in-law Veronica Mason and her little dog Pip.

She was presented with a bouquet of flowers and a book on Oxley's history.

Mr Blakstad said: "We wanted to come and see Winnie as she spent so many years with Oxley.

Mrs Mason's eyes lit up with excitement as she looked over the book about the company she spent more than 50 years at.

Upon seeing a photograph of Freddy Oxley, the founder of the company she said: "Oh, I remember Mr Oxley!"

Mrs Mason also came across a picture of the retirement party of one of her closest friends.

She said: "I remember Alice, she was always my mate when I was there, she never changed in all those years."

Even though she retired in the late 1970s, Mrs Mason remembers the time she spent working at Oxley very fondly.

She said: "I worked upstairs in the office, I was one of the lucky ones. I could see the tide coming in at Morecambe Bay.

"I made a lot of good friends there, we were all very close. It was a wonderful place, you didn't even feel like you were working."

Mrs Mason's daughter-in-law was delighted to see how happy her mother-in-law was with her presents.

Mrs Mason suffers from dementia, but she remembered every aspect of the job she last did more than 40 years ago.

Veronica Mason said: "You can see that she's so interested, you can see it in her eyes. She can't pull them away."

Mrs Mason was a well-liked woman at the Oxley plant, where she eventually rose to the position of foreman.

One of the men who has worked at Oxley for 51 years, Mark Lydon, 67, sent a message of congratulation to Mrs Mason for reaching 100 years old.

According to Mr Blakstad, Mr Lydon remembers meeting Mrs Mason on his first day of work in 1965.

Mr Blakstad said it had been a privilege to meet Mrs Mason. He said: "It's wonderful to see Winnie now she's 100 years old and after she worked with Oxley from its earliest days.

"I can safely say she is the company's oldest former employee."

Read about Mrs Mason's one hundredth birthday bash she spent with family and friends.