A WOMAN who made headlines by taking up an engineering apprentice with a Huddersfield chemical company has completed 25 years with the firm.
Joanne Newton featured in the Examiner when she was the only girl apprentice in the 1980 intake at ICI's Leeds Road site.
Now she is among 39 employees to be rewarded for long service at the site, which is now run by Syngenta.
The long-serving employees - who have notched up 20, 25, 30 or 35 years service - were treated to a dinner at the Galpharm Stadium and were presented with a gift of their choice, ranging from watches to widescreen televisions.
Together, they have amassed more than 1,000 years' service at the site.
Joanne, who lives in Marsh, is now a plant engineer at the Deighton works.
She has also worked as a control and electrical project design engineer and a design construction engineer.
She said: "There has been a lot of change over the years.
"We have made dyes for clothing, resins for shoes and the site was the first to make nylon.
"Everything that we have made in Huddersfield has been shipped all over the world."
Syngenta now makes weed and pest control products for the global agriculture sector.
Site manager Bob Swan said: "The team of people at Huddersfield are very skilled in their jobs and over the years have a made a significant contribution to the UK chemical industry."
