MORE than 200 dignitaries, friends and colleagues attended a retirement party for Mrs Elizabeth Conran who retired last Friday after 22 years as curator of the Bowes museum in Barnard Castle.

Mr Richard Hobson, paintings conservator at the museum, and Mr George Laing, former chairman of the Friends, presented gifts.

They included a specially commissioned silver and gold brooch, inlaid with blue shell in the design of a blue gentian, the unique Teesdale flower that is a particular favourite of Mrs Conran.

It was made by Guisborough jeweller Pat McAnally. The Friends have also commissioned a jewellery box to be made by local artist David Arnold.

Lord Eccles, chairman of the museum's new board of trustees, praised Mrs Conran's enthusiasm through the ups and downs of recent years.

Mrs Conran thanked the Friends and local businesses for their support in her work to get the museum more widely known. She also expressed thanks to Mr Chris Smith, Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, who led the re-launch of the museum with a report in 1998.

She acknowledged the generous financial support from various sources, hailing the Friends as an example to other friends' organisations as well as thanking former and current staff and members of the local media for their work on behalf of the Bowes.

On a lighter note, she expressed her desire to continue work for the museum, describing herself as an art junkie, for whom the Bowes offered a daily fix of the best substance.

She intends to remain in Barnard Castle and will spend part of her retirement undertaking further research on the museum's collections.

She is looking forward to learning how to use a computer, aided by the gift of a new PC from the Friends.

She will also return to the museum as senior consultant to help in the preparations for a major new exhibition due to open in March - Hidden Treasures of the Bowes Museum.