Next time you feel a little weary on your feet, remember that a 91-year-old pharmacy manager has just retired after 73 years.

Betty Pritchard started working in 1951 at the (now closed) Crindau Chemist where she spent 14 years. In 1965 she moved to Watkin-Davies Pharmacy in Bettws, Newport, where she has spent the last 59 years managing and dispensing.

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Pritchard opted to work in the local chemist when her mother wouldn’t let her become a nurse. Since then, she says pharmacy has been “all I thought about”.

She was part of Watkin-Davies Pharmacy’s move into its local shopping centre in 1972, and over the years she has served generations of families in the local community. She says she still sees them now.

“I know them all, because they were babies when they came here,” she says. “The customers are very good and very appreciative of what we do for them. I’m really lucky, I’ve made lots of friends, and it’s just a lovely place to work. I’ve enjoyed it!”

In recent years she gave up driving. She had been catching two buses every day from her home in Bassaleg, a three-hour round trip each day, but since the pandemic she reduced her days to two a week.

Changes

One of the biggest changes she has seen during her seven decades in pharmacy is that pharmacists “used to prescribe poppy heads for toothache” and are not involved in “making any medicines”.

“All the medicines and suppositories, they’re all pre-packed now,” she says. “It was all part of learning the trade.”

The local area has also changed during her time. She says a housing estate, shops, supermarkets, hairdressers and council offices have made in Bettws a “busy area”.

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But she feels proud of the community work she has done outside of her pharmacy role in supporting the elderly in care homes and flats, such as setting up a little shop for them once a week near their accommodation.

“Around Christmas time, we used to go and give them a Christmas party. That was a really happy time because they were so excited. We did that regularly for years, there were always volunteers and they always gave a lot of stuff to the raffle prize. We get well involved with all the elderly people.”

Colleagues and customers paid tribute to Pritchard last week with cakes, flowers and a bottle of Champagne to say thank you for her dedication to the local community. 

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When asked why she worked past the pension age, she tells C+D: “I love working! I love to be in charge, and over the years I’ve got on well with the staff. I’m still in touch with people I worked with 30 years ago.”

As for her retirement plans, she is “happy to just be at home” as “it’s been years I’ve had any time at home”. However, she admits work has already begun on her renowned homemade pickles that she’s making just in time for Christmas...