A FORMER farmer has celebrated reaching 100.
Barnard Castle’s Mary Hammond was born in the final year of the Great War and spent her early life at Parrick House, in Marwood.
She worked on the family farm and went to school in Langleydale and Eggleston before working in Middleton-in-Teesdale and Barnard Castle later in life.
Working on the farm with no tractors and just horses, she had three children – Enid, Colin and Nancy.
Tragically, her husband fell ill with tuberculosis in 1947 and died the same year.
“It was in the days before penicillin,” said her son.
Ms Hammond worked at Peat’s, in Middleton-in-Teesdale, and the school kitchen in the village.
She then moved to Vere Road, Barnard Castle, for 22 years before living for a short time with her daughter Nancy.
Still fit and lively, Ms Hammond now lives at the Manor House, in Barnard Castle.
A grandmother of seven and great-grandmother ten, she brought up her three figures last Wednesday (April 25) with a cake, flowers and a letter from the queen marking the occasion.
When it came to long life, she said staying away from drinking and smoking were key.
Mr Hammond added: “She was always up at five in the morning to milk the cows.”
![A COUNTY councillor is backing a campaign to get a pedestrian crossing in Staindrop. Frustrated parish councillors in the village summoned their county council representative Cllr George Richardson to their latest meeting to discuss several issues, including the call for a safe way to cross the A688. Earlier this year their request for a crossing was turned down by the county council’s highways officers. Parish council chairman Jonothan Raper described the reasons for the refusal as “spurious” and called on Cllr Richardson to support their campaign. He added: “One of the arguments they made was there is no clear line of desire when they studied the village – well this isn’t a clear line of desire because there isn’t a crossing, people cross whenever they can. “When the lollipop person was there, one of the things I noticed was people would walk all the way down to the lollipop person to cross the road to go to the shop or to go to the school.” He added a problem of parking at the primary school is exacerbated because people are too afraid to walk their children across the road. Cllr Richardson said he had supported previous attempts for a crossing point with the first being made about 15 years ago. He added: “We went fairly well down the road with that and they looked into it. The only recommended place was where the bus stop is and to get the visibility splays, people on the other side of the road would lose their parking. “That didn’t go down well so it just died a death.” Cllr Raper said he suspected the real reason for the officers’ refusal was the cost of installing a crossing. He added that much of the cost could be recovered from savings made on not having to employ a lollipop patrol. Cllr Raper said: “A lollipop person only provides a benefit of crossing for three hours of the day. You are getting 21 extra hours of crossing time [with a pedestrian crossing].” Cllr Richardson said he would raise the issue with the county council’s cabinet member for highways, Cllr John Shuttleworth.](https://teesdalemercury.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/georgeR-120x86.jpg)
