Today twin brothers who have helped keep open one of Moray's most frequently snowbound roads will complete a remark- able century of council service between them.

Sixty-seven-year-old Billy and John Grant are believed to be the longest-serving council employees anywhere in the UK – and they have no plans to retire.

The pair, who both started work with the former Moray and Nairn Joint County Council exactly 50 years ago, were each presented with a long-service certificate by Moray Council convener Councillor Stewart Cree.

Mr Cree said: "In all my experience, I have not heard of a single person completing 50 years of council service, let alone brothers – and let alone twin brothers."

After leaving school at 15, the brothers worked on the family farm at Dava, a lonely moorland site midway between Forres and Grantown-on-Spey. Their father spotted a newspaper advertisement seeking a road worker at the local council depot.

He wrote to say he had twins who were interested in the job and asked whether both could be employed. It led to his sons spending their entire working lives operating out of the remote Dava depot on the boundary of what are now the Moray Council and Highland Council areas.

The brothers started work on April 9, 1963 on a wage of £3 10s (£3.50) for a six-day week and initially covered an area stretching from Dava to Grantown, Dulnain Bridge and Cromdale.

They cycled to work carrying their tools with them, and it was not unusual for them to walk one side of the road in the morning and the other in the afternoon – 12 or 15 miles a day – edging the carriageway, sweeping up and keeping the roadside gullies clear.

Eventually they clubbed together to buy a car and not only passed their driving test on the same day, but also passed their four-wheel lorry driving test on the same day and later the test for a six-wheel lorry.

The A940 which links Forres and Grantown is often affected by drifting snow in winter. In February 1978, the brothers' snowplough became stuck in a snowdrift for nearly a week until a digger finally managed to reach it.

During that same winter Billy got a call from the police to say a family had become marooned about half-a-mile from his home.

He went out on foot in the blizzard and battled through 5ft snowdrifts to reach their car, which was completely buried by snow. The family, a husband and wife and their three young children, ended up staying at his home for five days until the road was reopened.