A GREAT-GRANDMOTHER said to have made the region’s best black pudding celebrated her 100th birthday yesterday with a cake made from the breakfast favourite.

Hannah Coulson made blood sausages for Grieves’ butchers, in Trimdon Colliery, County Durham, from the age of 14 to 72.

Mrs Coulson, who was born in Trimdon Grange, County Durham, became famous for her black puddings, with people travelling from miles around to buy her produce.

Now retired from the kitchen, but still in good health, she celebrated her 100th birthday with relatives at The Beeches care home, in Kelloe.

Asked the secret to making the perfect black pudding – a type of sausage made by cooking blood, most often from pigs or cattle – Mrs Coulson said: “Mix it well with other things and keep stirring. The more you mix it, the better.

“It was a job I loved to do. I always liked it.

“The customers liked the black pudding very much. It was one of my favourites. I could just eat some now.”

And – right on cue – a carer brought in a black pudding cake, bought from her old shop, complete with candles and decorations, to smiles all round.

Despite Mrs Coulson’s talents, opinion in her home was divided over the desirability of her prize produce.

Eldest son Anthony, 68, said: “I didn’t like it. I eat it now, but not when I was a young lad.”

But younger son John, 67, said: “I loved it. I looked forward to it being brought home.

“Everybody ate black pudding in those days and every butcher had their own recipe, which they kept secret.”

Mrs Coulson, whose husband, Anthony, died in 1968, moved into The Beeches two years ago.

She has two sons, four grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

Asked the secret to her long life, son John said: “She has been working hard all her life. She always says you should laugh often and never miss a meal.”

Mrs Coulson said: “Keep working hard.

I am going to live for another 100.”