EVA Lomas undoubtedly had a remarkable career as an estate agent, becoming the industry’s national spokesperson and consulting with Government ministers.

None of this, though, came from a toughly ambitious woman determined to prove her way in what was a masculine world. “I’ve never been ambitious at all,” admitted Eva, now 82. “But I did take advantage of opportunities when they were offered to me.”

Eva was born in Leigh, the eldest of two children, and spent her childhood growing up on a pig and poultry farm on what is now Pennington country park.

She has happy memories of little piglets being cared for in the house and of growing up around animals. This was wartime, though, and “forgetting your gas mask for school was worse than forgetting your homework – you were sent home!” she recalled.

Eva went to school locally, at King Street Methodist Primary School and then Windermere Road Secondary School, transferring to Leigh Technical College to take shorthand and typing as she “loved typing” from an early age.

She left school at 15 and began working for local wholesale grocery company John McDonald’s where she stayed until she was 22. By then she had met her husband, Norman, they married but within a fortnight he had to go off to do his National Service.

A brief spell with another wholesale grocer’s preceded working, through an agency, as secretary for estate agency Holker’s in Bolton as the owner-manager’s secretary. Fate popped along here as, when the Abbey National building society asked her boss if he was interested in opening an agency for them in Leigh, he suggested his Leigh-born secretary as manager.

She agreed to do this and found a suitable office near Leigh Market where she set up the business alongside a valuer. To her surprise, Eva took to management straight away.

Around 1964, though, her boss decided to sell his Bolton and Leigh agencies and move to the Isle of Man so he offered them to Eva. “I discussed it with Norman and he, as usual, was very supportive,” she stated.

“I only wanted the Leigh business but we didn’t have the money as we were living in a house in Over Hulton and had just put a deposit on a bigger property being built nearby. However, my brother Fred offered to help me.”

At the same time, though, Eva discovered she was pregnant with the couple’s first child. “I really didn’t know what to do for the best,” she said, “but Mr Holker suggested turning a big back room at the office into a nursery and having the child with me. And that’s just what I did.”

Workplace crèches then were basically unknown but Eva – with young daughter Hilary established at the office each day – found it worked well. “People came in and they really took to Hilary,” added Eva, smiling. “She was a very good baby which helped.”

Eva became an experienced and successful estate agent and when the Abbey National asked her to set up an agency for them in Westhoughton, she opened a business there. Then, later, she added an agency nearer to home in Over Hulton. In the meantime, son David had come along.

From early in her management career, Eva had been advised to join the National Association of Estate Agents and was originally one of only five female members in the country.

She eventually joined the organisation’s Lancashire and Cheshire committee, then the National Council and in 1994 became its national president. This thrust her into the national media as a regular spokesperson on TV, radio and in newspapers but also into working with Government.

She travelled all over the world in this role, including addressing international delegates in America when the keynote speaker was Bill Clinton. She rubbed shoulders with celebrities and was a guest herself on programmes like Woman’s Hour.

Eva eventually sold her business in the late ‘90s, keeping on lettings for a few more years. Today, she is still involved with the national association, as an honorary life member and through its College of Fellows. She celebrates 50 years with the association this year.

She knows that times have changed for estate agencies – “the internet made sure of that” – but feels she had its golden years and worked hard to improve estate agents’ image.

These days, she is a busy grandmother and a member of both Soroptimists and Inner Wheel. Does she miss working as an estate agent? “I miss the times you helped the parents to buy and house and then the children,” she said. “I miss the families – I met so many lovely people.”

Caption: IN HER OWN HOME – Eva Lomas today