ONE of Ethel Stobbs’ childhood memories is of a Zeppelin flying over Hartlepool.

Mrs Stobbs, who has just celebrated her 106th birthday, was born near Marske, in Cleveland, on May 2, 1904.

Of the German airship which flew over Hartlepool by mistake during the First World War, she said: “It was like a cigar in the sky. I could see the windows of the houses shaking.”

Mrs Stobbs moved to Durham aged 12 – a city she recalls as being all cobbles, something she thought “horrible”. She said: “I’d been used to the seaside and it was a total change. But I soon knew how nice Durham was.”

Mrs Stobbs has remained remarkably independent and active, still living in her own home without the aid of carers.

She took up writing poetry aged 90 and, until two months ago, baked a cake once a week.

The 106-year-old still tackles The Northern Echo’s quick and cryptic crosswords every day, borrows books from a mobile library, makes marmalade and is a fan of TV show Countdown.

She has lived in the same house, in Whinney Hill, Durham, since 1942.

Asked the key to a long and happy life, she said: “Don’t eat too much, keep your meals, no spicy food and no eating between meals.”

Her favourites include strawberries, fruit cake and an occasional spoonful of brandy in lemonade.

After attending Durham’s St Margaret’s School, she became an accounts clerk at the city’s Caldcleugh’s ironmongers.

In 1931, she married Stanley Morrison Stobbs, who ran a decorating company. He died about 30 years ago.

She has a daughter, Audrey, and a grandson, Geoffrey.

Mrs Stobbs is a former president of Durham’s Townswomen’s Guild and still receives home communion from St Oswald’s Church.