FOUR decades after her great-grandparents founded a Didcot bingo hall, Alex Foley has made it a full house by becoming the fourth generation of her family to work at the venue.

The Coronet Bingo Hall was founded in 1976 by Norma Carpenter, or Mrs C as she is known to customers, and is still going strong.

Now 16-year-old Alex has just started a Sunday morning job helping to clean up after Saturday nights.

She joins her uncle Laurie Carpenter, 38, her grandfather 63-year-old John Carpenter and 87-year old matriarch Mrs C in keeping the company going.

Alex, who is hoping to start working on the bar when she turns 18, said: "It's lush to be part of our family business that’s been going for 40 years.

"I started cleaning here to earn some money but it's nice to work with my family and keep the legacy going.”

Mrs C started the Coronet in Broadway with husband Bill Carpenter.

Bill, previously a director at famous record label EMI, died shortly after the business moved in to its current premises – an old cinema in Broadway – when he was 60.

Mrs C said nobody thought the hall would carry on after that but she kept it going, drawing on her family's long background in the entertainment industry.

She said: "It's not really our club at all, it belongs to everyone.

"It is a bit unique. You get the larger clubs but they probably do not know the people as I know them.

"I've now got two girls working for me whose mothers also worked for me and a few of the staff have been here for the full 40 years.

"Sometimes people say to me 'you are our royal family' and I do feel a bit like the queen mum.

"One birthday I had 207 cards.

"Everyone thinks I am going to live forever."

Laurie Carpenter, who also started working at the Coronet at 16, said: "I think you could say we're truly a family-run business.

"The customers really like it, they feel like part of the family.

"We can sometimes have three generations of the same family coming in to play together as well."