A GRAND old lady of the dale finally got to celebrate her birthday among friends at a Teesdale lunch club.
Two years of Covid restrictions and lockdowns meant May Wilson was unable to mark her 100th and 101st birthday at the weekly get-together.
However, last week members of the Barnard Castle club raised a glass when Ms Wilson celebrated her 102nd birthday.
Candles and a sparkler were lit, flowers presented and a small cake baked after she had enjoyed lunch.
Ms Wilson is from a farming family.
The daughter of Joseph and Nancy Wilson, she was born at Redhouse Farm, Langleydale, where she grew up with three brothers and two sisters.
When her uncle retired, the family took on his farm as well, at Low Wood.
“I did a bit of everything on the farm. In those days it was all by hand,” she recalled.
“Farmers’ daughters did as much outside as they did inside. We had to get out and help with everything.
“When tractors came along I learned how to drive them and then how to use the milking machines.”
Ms Wilson remembers turning land over to crops during the Second World War.
“Mum and dad had retired and my brothers were on the farm. Mr Churchill said Britain had to be self sufficient.”
She said one effect of this was the loss of wildflowers, some of which have never come back.
After her parents retired, Ms Wilson moved with them to Harmire and she continues to live in the town.
She has been a regular at the lunch club, run by the Association of Teesdale Day Clubs, for more than a decade, and continues to enjoy getting together each week with the other members.
