Mrs Byers lives at Stoneleigh Care Home in Durham Road, Annfield Plain, near Stanley, where the old corrugated iron Tin School once stood.

And some of her earliest memories are not her happiest. She said: “There were two bad teachers. They always had you crying. They were really old-fashioned and strict in those days.”

Mrs Byers, who was born Mary Elizabeth Hunter, finished her schooling in nearby New Kyo.

She later worked for her aunt, looking after her four sons.

Mrs Byers said: “I got paid two shillings a week. My aunt would buy me a pair of stockings and mark it down on calendar. They had to last me six weeks.”

She was also housekeeper for the Shimeld family, owners of a drapers shop, in Stanley.

She married council electrician Christopher “Kit” Byers.

The couple had two children Beryl and Christine, three grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

Her secret to long life is “hard work and good luck”.