Bag for life: Does Shropshire historian own Britain's oldest shopping bag?

Sue O'Dowd was given it while shopping at Tesco in 1981, when her daughter Frankie was a baby.

Both Frankie and the bag are now 36.

The bag has survived five house moves over the years, travelling from Birmingham to Much Wenlock.

One of a batch made to celebrate Tesco's 50th anniversary, it is used by grandmother Mrs O'Dowd to store her spare wool.

Frankie noticed the bag recently when her 65-year-old mother was knitting.

"I said to Mum, 'you do realise this bag is as old as me?' It amused me she'd kept it for all this time," she said.

"It's just a normal plastic bag but it's really been a bag for life.

"It comes out whenever there's a new baby in the family. Mum's great at knitting little jumpers."

Mrs O'Dowd, an architectural historian, said: "Perhaps I just like old things. If something is still good to go you keep going with it. I remember getting it from Five Ways in Birmingham when Frankie was just a baby. It was one of the first big Tesco stores.

"I just put my spare wool in it and it's stayed there ever since. I can't believe it's survived so well."

After snapping a picture of the bag Frankie posted it to Tesco's Facebook page to share her bewilderment.

A customer care worker replied to say: "That's a little piece of history right there! I'd keep it! Better still, frame it."

In 2015, Martin McCaskie from Mold, North Wales, also revealed he was still using a Tesco 50th anniversary carrier bag. The retired technician kept the bag in his coat pocket for emergencies.