Times change in the world of work and nowadays it could be argued there are more opportunities than ever to run a business.

More women in particular are taking the opportunity to set up and run their own companies, breaking through traditional stereotypes and making a genuine contribution not just to their own lives, but the economy in general.

While this is refreshing, the trend is not exactly new. In fact, women have always worked independently, often juggling child care and family responsibilities with work.

And working from home, seen as the panacea of modern work/life balance, is also no great innovation with generations of women taking in secretarial work and converting spare rooms into offices.

Barbara Cleary is a typical example of a woman who has spent most of her 73 years working and today still works from home, having just started a new line of business.

Ms Cleary has lived 50 years in Witney but still considers Oxford to be her home, perhaps the only example of an old fashioned attitude when it comes to the local area.

She attended SS Mary and John School in Hertford Street, east Oxford. After failing her 11+ exam (she still flinches at this), Mrs Cleary briefly went to school at Cowley St John but passed a further test to be accepted at the technical college in St Ebbe's.

It was a critical move because it was there that she learned shorthand and typing — skills which enabled her to build a career and business and which still benefit her to this day.

And it was at the school's sister college in Cowley Road that she started her first job in the early 1950s working as a junior under the watchful eye of Mary Tibbetts, secretary to principal John Brookes, after whom Oxford Brookes University is named today.

After three years she left to become secretary to the assistant administrator at the Radcliffe Hospital, Henry Willmott, before marrying in 1956 and moving to Witney in 1958 after her husband, Bert, landed a job at the then thriving Smiths Industries site.

The couple lived in a house on the Smiths estate, a purpose-built development for the factory workers and Mrs Cleary got a job at Haines' builders for the equivalent of £2.50 a week part-time.

"I decided Oxford was to far away to travel by bus and by that time I had two children.

"But I was bored, so I bought myself an old Imperial typewriter and started working as a typist from home.

"It was not unusual at the time — students in those days wanted typing done for their theses. I advertised around putting cards in the colleges and and Margaret Johnson's stationery shop put some work my way.

"Then out of the blue Peter Barrell of furniture firm Wesley-Barrell came to me with these piles of papers and boxes and asked me to do some regular work, so that set me off."

Mrs Cleary started recruiting typists as the work built up, some of whom stayed with her for more than 30 years.

"People were very keen to get work. I put an advertisement in the Witney Gazette and I must have had 100 replies. A lot of women did home typing and I was able to help them." She eventually moved from the Smiths estate and the couple bought their own home, building an extension from which Mrs Cleary was able to work. Five years later she opened her own office in Market Square, eventually expanding as she had invested in duplicators — the forerunners of photocopiers.

Around the same time she also set up Cleartype Secretarial Services, which provided temporary staff to local firms such as Early's blanket factory, Bowyers Sausages and Crawford Colletts engineering firm.

Simultaneously Mrs Cleary became heavily involved in the Witney community, working on church magazines and Talking News for the Blind, which used her offices to record during which time she saw the likes of Pam Ayres and Ducklington-born actress and start of the Archers, Mollie Harris.

She helped with Cogges Parish Church's Rwanda Appeal, organising events and exchange visits and became involved with Cancer Research locally.

Then, a combination of ill health and the increasing demands of caring for grandchildren and elderly relatives meant she had to close the office. Demand for her services had also tailed off thanks to the computer age with students typing their own work.

Ms Cleary had never used a computer, always relying on her staff, but she took a training course and converted a bedroom in her home into an office.

She still accepts work, often from long-standing clients such as King's College, London, who send her digital recordings which have to be transcribed.

But now she is also running another business as an agent for Ecoflow products which use magnetic technology which is claimed to combat pain from conditions such as arthritis and rheumatism.

The same technology is also used to tackle limescale in water and help reduce fuel consumption in cars.

Ms Cleary came across the bracelets when she was waiting for a hip operation and found her need for painkillers was greatly reduced, prompting her to get in touch with the company and signing up to become an agent.

Now she attends craft fairs and other shows locally and is building another business for herself.

She said: "Ecoflow has worked for me and I am very positive about it.

"I am building it by word of mouth and handing out a lot of leaflets. One of my best selling capmaigns years ago was was sending fliers around the colleges and this is the same sort of thing."

And there is little doubt Ms Cleary will make a success of it — the idea of retirement is anathema to her.

"Without this I would be bored, just as I was after my children were born."