A LANDLORD has fulfilled a promise made to pensioner on her 99th birthday that if she reached 100 he would throw her a party on the house.

Allan Barker, who runs The Top House, in Coundon, near Bishop Auckland, made the deal with Ella Deary when she celebrated turning 99 in the pub last year.

And true to his word, the businessman welcomed back the former Aycliffe Angel this week - serving up a free meal before wowing the great-grandmother and her 20 friends with a cake.

"I said to Ella last year it's a deal if you come back next year you can have a party with a cake, balloons and a visit from The Northern Echo," said Mr Barker.

Mrs Deary, who turns 100 tomorrow (July 1), was born and raised in Coundon where she has lived on her own since the death of her husband more than 25 years ago.

She worked in domestic service in Bradford until the war started when she was called up to help in the home front as an Aycliffe Angel in the munitions factory in Newton Aycliffe.

Before the war ended in 1945 Mrs Deary married her husband Jim Deary and the pair, who lived together in Coundon and Leeholme, had three children.

A lover of dancing since the age of 12, Mrs Deary has been attending tea dances at Leeholme Welfare Hall for half a century and continues to turn up every week for the two-hour social get together.

Asked what her secret to a long life was, the grandmother-of-eight said: "Hard work, a glass of sherry and keeping active."