The St Albans-based director of a plumbing company has been given the Freedom of the City of London.

Anne Timpany, co-owner of On Tap Plumbers, has been admitted to Freedom of the City of London in The Worshipful Company of Plumbers.

She said: “This is very exciting for me. The Worshipful Company of Plumbers is one of the oldest liveries in existence and of course in the era in which it began the plumbing trade was highly-respected as people lived in such unhygienic and squalid conditions, especially if they were poor.

“My family back in New Zealand are delighted by this, and I’ll use my new status to pull rank with our plumbers and my husband!”

Anne attended a Freeman ceremony, where she read aloud the Declaration of a Freeman and signed the Register of Freemen.

She can now drive sheep over London Bridge and carry a sword in public.