FOR most people their workplace is just that - the place they work - but for one Oxford college secretary it is rather more significant.

Liz Bird, of Ulfgar Road, Wolvercote, was born in the room she has worked in for the past 15 years.

Ruskin College has several long-serving members of staff, but Mrs Bird, 61, is the only one to have a lifelong link with the building.

During the Second World War, the Walton Street college buildings, were used as a maternity hospital for evacuees. Mrs Bird was one of more than 2,500 people born there, after her family was evacuated to Oxford from London.

She only found out about her link to the building when she got a job at Ruskin in 1991 after being made redundant.

She said: "It did not occur to me at the time. When I told my mum she said that's where I was born."

In 1999, when the college marked its centenary, it emerged that Mrs Bird was working in the exact room she was born in. She gave a speech during the centenery celebrations.

Ruskin, which also has an annexe in Headington, is an independent college that specialises in providing opportunities for adults with few or no qualifications.