Eveline's star service as Chaplin dropped in

But when he popped in to a shop in Shrewsbury, it was something else that Dilys Martin's mum noticed - his beautiful hands.

A little while ago we told the story of how, during a flying visit to the county town in November 1931, the film star bought a model steam engine from Thomas's toy store in Mardol Head.

And it turns out that it was Dilys' mother, the then 18-year-old Miss Eveline Clayton, who was the shop assistant with striking auburn hair who served him.

Not that she was one to make a fuss about this rather unusual claim to fame, nor did she ask for his autograph.

"My mother was not like that. She was shy," said Dilys, of Pool Rise, Shrewsbury.

Thomas's was, she said, a toy shop.

"It was the big shop on the corner of Mardol and that's where she met Charlie Chaplin. It became Timpsons shoe shop and now I think it's a cafe."

Dilys herself used to work as a teenager at Boots, and she thinks that was how the conversation came up with her mother about Charlie Chaplin.

"We used to get all the stars appearing at the Granada and they used to come into Boots to do their shopping. I think one day I must have come home and said 'You'll never guess who came in today - Petula Clark.'

"She came down to the art department and purchased a picture. Others I can remember are Ruby Murray, a lovely Irish lady, and Frankie Vaughan.

"We had an art department and stationery department. I was in stationery. I didn't think Petula Clark went down well. One lady serving her asked for an autograph. She said: 'I'm here to do my shopping.' I think she lost a fan.

"When my mother said she had met Charlie Chaplin, it didn't mean anything to me. To me he was a funny little man with a walking stick. She said he came into the shop and had his valet with him. Mother had a thing about hands and said she had had a look and he had the most beautiful hands and manicured nails.

"He didn't have any money. His valet did all that and told her where it had to be sent."

It was arranged to send the engine, which Dilys thinks was intended for Chaplin's sons, to the Carlton Hotel in London.

She said her mother had also worked at Woolworths and Samuels in Shrewsbury. She lived at that time at 5 Carline Terrace, Shrewsbury.

Eveline was to marry Sam Steventon, who had worked at Currys store in the town, at Belle Vue, Shrewsbury, on April 13, 1936.

"She loved people and always drilled into us not to tell lies and show no malice. She had very good manners. She said manners maketh a man. She said always tell the truth, you can never get away from the truth.

"I lost both my parents in 1985. Both died in 19 weeks. My dad absolutely idolised her."