A WOMAN known as a "human calculator" for her ability to work out sums quicker in her head than most people can do on a calculator is retiring after 55 years.

Jean Stout, has amazed many buyers and sellers with the speed at which she can work out sums in her head at cattle, sheep and furniture sales in and around Barnard Castle, County Durham.

She started as the late Joseph Addison's first employee, a shorthand typist, on the day he launched his business as an auctioneer and valuer in September 1952.

Now, after keeping records at many hundreds of sales all over Teesdale and beyond, she is to retire from Addisons on the 55th anniversary of her starting day, Monday, September 3.

Mrs Stout said yesterday: "I could always work out figures speedily. Commission for different items varied between two per cent and five per cent, with VAT at 17.5 per cent. But I could jot down the right answer quicker than most folk could do it on a calculator.

"I have loved every day of my working life, whether it was at a farm sale, cattle mart or furniture showroom. I can look back on years that have been truly wonderful. It's been a great privilege."

The firm has grown steadily, first holding sales in village halls, then taking over a former cinema and eventually building modern headquarters -while many of the staff have come and gone along the way.

"But I've never wanted to leave until now because I look on the firm as one big happy family," she added.

"You hear about arguments in some places, but there's never been a hint of it with us."

Her only sadness came when farmers sold up all their stock and machinery before retiring.

"I was always sorry to see farmers selling everything they had worked for, as it was the end of their working life," she said.

"But these sales always ended with a slap-up tea in the farmhouse."

In her early days, she often went to house sales in which all the contents were sold after the owner died. But these are rarely held now because relatives prefer to take some items away and sell them individually as they feel they can make more money.

Mrs Stout said: "I put that down to all the auction programmes they have on television now. They have made a lot of people wiser and they want to get as much cash as they can."

Her proudest moment came five years ago when her current boss, Simon Nixon, asked her to officially open the firm's new premises. "I felt highly privileged to do a task like that," she said.

She has worked only part time in recent years, but after retiring will be doing more gardening with her husband, John, at their home in Stainton Village, near Barnard Castle.