“I’m glad I stayed put.” - Gladys Peacock (From The Northern Echo)

“I’m glad I stayed put.” - Gladys Peacock

8:56am Thursday 18th March 2010 in

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GLADYS PEACOCK, who turned 100 this week, is glad she stayed in the same village throughout her long life.

The great-grandmother this week celebrated her landmark birthday in a house only a few doors from where she was born 100 years earlier.

Mrs Peacock was born on March 16, 1910, in Lincoln House, South Side, Hutton Rudby, North Yorkshire.

She has never lived anywhere but South Side and, through the course of her 100 years, has moved to five houses – four of which are next to each other.

Mrs Peacock said: “I love this village – always have – that’s why I’ve been here so long.

“It wasn’t that I planned to live on the same street all my life, it’s just how it was back then.

“Parents would run the house then, when they passed away, the children would take it on.

That’s sort of how it happened for me.”

She added: “I’ve seen an awful lot of changes in my 100 years. I can’t remember when we got clean drinking water in the houses, but I can remember going to the village pump to fetch pails of water. We had rain water for baths and washing clothes.

“It wasn’t a bad time to live in, we didn’t know any better – we were a community and all mucked in.

“One thing that has always remained the same is how beautiful the daffodils are on the village green in the spring time; I have always loved that.”

Mrs Peacock attended the Hutton Rudby Primary School before it was knocked down and rebuilt.

She returned to the newly built school when she was 50 to work as a midday assistant.

“They called me a midday assistant, but I don’t really know about all those proper terms,”

She said: “I was a dinner nanny. I loved working with the kids, I stayed there for more than 16 years and loved every minute of it.”

Mrs Peacock is part of four generations of her family, with two children of her own, five granddaughters and six great-grandchildren.

She said: “My birthday was wonderful, the door never stopped going with people popping in to see me and have a chat.

“I’ve received lots of cards which is lovely – it shows people are still thinking about me.

“People move around a lot these days, everyone is in a hurry and commuting here and there, that can really take away from the community spirit of an area.

“I’m glad I stayed put.”