100 year old Lily Dollery

A resident of St Vincent's care home in Down Road, she will enjoy a special party organised by staff.

Lily said: "I have two children, five grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren, so, if they can, I think there will be about 17 that come.

"I don't know what they are doing all this for - but it's great of them. It's a big surprise. They are a good lot here."

Lily was born in Burnley, Lancashire, and was one of seven children.

"We had our ups and downs like most people in those days - they were different times to now," said Lily as she looked back over the years and thought especially of Christmas.

She was just 15 when she left school and went into domestic service.

"I was in the big house as a kitchen maid - I did all sorts. It was a big place, which you don't see today, with all manner of servants, butlers and housemaids. You don't see that now - it's been gone a long time. But I got fed up with that after a few years - it was very hard work."

From then on she worked mostly in catering, cooking and baking, and at one point was even a chef in a restaurant in Guildford.

She worked in Arscott's bakery in Devonshire Road on the confectionary side, and was also a baker at Wells.

"Then I was in a shop in Eastbourne where I used to do confectionary and sugary stuff - we used to make 20 different kinds of fudge, which was sent all around the world in those days.

"I had always done cooking in one way or another, in restaurants and hotels all my life."

She married just before turning 30; her husband was Frederick Dollery, and the couple were based in Basingstoke where they raised their two daughters, Anne and Gillian.