A RESPECTED local author has put down her pen after completing her last work.

Vera Robinson, 87, a retired teacher and local historian, has produced Redcar in Word and Pictures as her final work before retiring.

The history of the town and its neighbours includes chapters on key events in Redcar, Warrenby and South Gare, Dormanstown, Kirkleatham, Yearby and Markse. Pictures are drawn from the Southeran archive of old photographs.

Mrs Robinson, who was recently granted the Freedom of the Borough in recognition of her service to the community, spent most of her teaching life in Grangetown, and has had a lifelong interest in the history of the towns in which she has lived and worked.

Her latest book is her fifth. She said: "I think I have reached that time of life when I can lay my pen down and start to take things a little easier."