The manager of a sports and social club in Melksham has admitted it will be a wrench to leave after 26 years at the helm.

Terry Gregory, 69, of St Margarets Gardens, said the Cooper Avon club at Melksham House in Market Place, has changed enormously over the years.

Mr Gregory, a grandfather-of-three, will be having a party with club members to mark his departure on June 27.

He said: “Leaving is going to be a wrench because it is a job that has required total involvement and walking away is going to be difficult.

“I think when I do leave, I may have to make a clean break for a while as much as I will miss it, because it will be hard to carry on going along to use the facilities and not getting involved with staffing issues and things like that.

“I will of course go back to use it in the future though. I have a lot of friends there and I have had a wonderful time working there.

“Most of the people who work here now have worked with me since I started. There is a very low turnover of staff.”

A former maintenance engineer at Avon Rubber in Bath Road, Mr Gregory said he was asked to take up the position 26 years ago by the chief executive of the company at the time, who thought he might suit the role.

Since then, he has seen the club facilities grow from two hard tennis courts, to astro turf pitches, snooker facilities used by 17 teams, skittle facilties used by 13 local teams and a newly-refurbished cricket pavilion.

The club has 7,474 members, including members of the public who have to pay an annual subscription fee and hire fees as well as Cooper Avon workers and their families.

Money to pay for equipment and new facilities has been raised through a monthly draw, which has for the last 19 years seen employees at Cooper Avon pay £1 a month, with cars and cash among the top prizes over the years.

Talking about the monthly draw, Mr Gregory said: “This produced a net profit for us of around £22,000 to £26,000 each year. Now as there are fewer employees we probably only see about £200 profit a week and the prizes are not cars these days, but cash prizes. But the draw is still going.”

Mr Gregory, who lives with his wife Janet, 69, said he is looking forward to family time after his retirement and travelling a bit more with his wife.

He will be succeeded in the post by Eddie Schofield, who is the landlord of the Pilot pub in Bowerhill.

Julian Baldwin, European managing director of the Cooper Tire and Rubber company: “I’d like to thank Terry for his long and faithful service. We’ll miss him.”