Bridgnorth Cliff Railway director Eileen celebrates 95th birthday with fish and chips
A director of Bridgnorth Cliff Railway has celebrated her 95th birthday, having been in the business for 74 years.
Eileen Tipping runs the business with her son, Dr Malvern Tipping, who also serves as a director of the railway.
The steepest and oldest inland cliff railway in the country has been hauling residents, shoppers and tourists up the sandstone cliffs since July 7, 1892.
The service runs in Eileen's blood, as her grandfather was a cousin of the railway's founder, Sir George Croydon Marks.
However, Eileen and her family had never heard of Bridgnorth before purchasing the railway, with the family connection coming as a strange twist of fate.
To celebrate her birthday, Eileen had an afternoon in Cambridge and dinner with her two sons at the Wentworth Hotel in Aldeburgh, later having fish and chips at a shop in Newmarket.
Her son, Malvern, said: "Eileen has been in the business for 74 years. After having trained at the animal shelter in St Helier, Jersey, her first business venture was to open a boarding kennels and cattery at the age of 22 on her father's former poultry farm.
"She operated the kennels and cattery for thirty-five years, but in the meantime had also operated a builders' and plumbers' merchants with her late husband and continues with real estate ventures.
"Presently, she is taking an interest in the family's acquisition of a two-centuries old ironmongery business in Norfolk."
