Kate ScotterA woman who has dedicated more than 20 years to Norwich's historical treasures has retired. Rosemary Salt yesterday stood down as secretary of the Friends of Norwich Museums (FNM) after 21 years' service.Kate Scotter

A woman who has dedicated more than 20 years to Norwich's historical treasures has retired.

Rosemary Salt yesterday stood down as secretary of the Friends of Norwich Museums (FNM) after 21 years' service.

The long-serving committee member, who lives in Norwich's Golden Triangle, first got involved with the Friends after her now husband Peter took her to the group's annual general meeting in 1972 on their second date when she was just a teenager.

Thirty-eight years on, she has seen a number of changes including the reopening of Strangers' Hall, the establishment of the Royal Norfolk Regimental Museum and the Friends group grow to 1,300 members.

Mrs Salt shed tears as she bid farewell to the role but vowed she would remain a life-long member of FNM and will still be involved in celebrating the group's 90th anniversary next year.

She said: "I will miss the museum staff, the Friends and the people. I will miss being involved in all of the projects and helping to make the museums really wonderful. I'm particularly proud of the work we did to reopen Strangers' Hall - we helped pull it out of potential closure and turned it around.

"I think Norwich's bid to become the City of Culture is wonderful and I support anything Norwich can do to support itself."

Ceri Lamb will take on the role as secretary while Lucy Santos will replace Kate Anetts who stood down as membership secretary after 10 years. Leona Levine will continue as treasurer until Christmas. FNM is the second oldest museum support group in the country and it was revealed at yesterday's AGM that they had been bequeathed �25,000.

Richard Gurney, chairman of FNM, said Mrs Salt would be greatly missed. He said: "Twenty-one years is a long time by anyone's standard and in that time Rosemary has expanded the work of the secretary enormously and has become the face of the Friends of Norwich Museums. We will all miss her."

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� Do you know someone who is retiring after long service? Call reporter Kate Scotter on 01603 772326 or email kate.scotter@archant.co.uk