JIMMY Savile started his DJ career there. Thousands of East Lancashire teenagers did there courting there.

And Joan Ashworth Scantlebury has seen them all.

After 38 years and four months, she is finally calling "house" at Mecca Bingo, Blackburn.

Joan, of Rollaston Road, Blackburn, is planning a huge send-off party next Saturday.

And although she is ending her long career with bingo, she started at the former Locarno Ballroom, St Peter's Street, on Bonfire Night, 1959.

"Mecca Dancing had bought the building in 1958 and spent a year doing it up. I joined as a receptionist and then moved up to management nine months later," said Joan, who was the catering manager.

The Locarno then became the Golden Palms until 16 years ago when it converted to Mecca Bingo.

Joan's 38-year long reign is memory packed - the Bachelors on the first opening night.

"All the top names appeared here. Jimmy Savile started here as a DJ, there was Gerry and the Pacemakers, the Drifters. And we had visits from all the Miss Worlds.

"When the competition moved to London with Mecca, we used to go down for a month," she added.

"I have had the best of both worlds, when it was dancing, the hours were long, often until 2 and 3am. I had the stamina then. When it changed to bingo, it was a different type of work." Joan, who won the catering manager of the year in 1970 and a trip on the QE 2, says bingo is still popular.

"Where else can women and men go on their own?" she added.

Joan, who met her husband Edward at the Mecca, has worked part-time for the past three years, training her successor.

And during her retirement she plans to carry on travelling.

"We have travelled round the world twice," said Joan.

She will also be "slaving away" over her retirement gift - a state of the art cooker.

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