“Initially I said: ‘I’m not wearing that uniform’, but then I said I’d give it a try. It was meant to be temporary, until the kids had gone to secondary school. But I’m still here, and I think it’s too late to go to sewing college now!”

Over the decades, Reid has helped thousands of children – she calls them her “customers” – and has been around for so long that she has crossed three generations of the same family.

“The little kids come and you watch them grow. I was crossing some of their grandparents. The new term’s come, so I’ve just got another 30.”

For Reid, the structure and routine of a job is part of the appeal. She wakes up at 6am every morning during term time, puts on Radio Lancashire, eats a slice of toast and phones her great-grandson to make sure he’s up to do his paper round.

Then, just after 8am, she walks five minutes to work outside Longridge C of E Primary School, feeding the birds in the churchyard along the way. She hangs around until 9am “for any stragglers”. After volunteering at the local YMCA throughout the day, she is back outside the school at 3:15pm until 4pm.

Being a sociable person is essential if you want to be a successful lollipop person, Reid says.

“It’s a Marmite job, you either love it or you don’t. You either don’t stay long or stay for ages.

“If I ever told my family I was retiring they’d say ‘you’re only 84, get out there, what’s the matter with you?’”

‘I always tell my children I will die at my desk’

This can-do attitude to work in old age is associated with considerable health benefits. 

A 2015 study of 83,000 older adults over 15 years, published in the American journal Preventing Chronic Disease, suggested that, compared with people who retired, those who worked past age 65 were about three times more likely to report being in good health and about half as likely to have serious health problems, such as cancer or heart disease.

Another study published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, suggested that working even one more year beyond retirement age was associated with a 9pc to 11pc lower risk of dying during the 18-year study period, regardless of health.

Muriel James, 71, taught maths in a secondary school for 37 years before quitting her job in 2015 to look after her mother, who had developed dementia. She embarked on writing a Maths textbook for Cambridge University Press, which she could fit around her caring duties.

“[Writing a book] was a bit scary initially, but also a new challenge – and I love that.”

Quitting her job to care for her mother has motivated her to keep busy. “I’d love to keep going til 99. My fear is that I’d not be able to.

“I hate the thought of vegetating, not using my brain or losing what I have. With my mother having dementia, it was very upsetting.”