WHEN you reach the age of 100 there can’t be many things left to do – but Ivy Pearce chalked up a new experience when she rode on the footplate of a steam engine.

The experience was organised by her son-in-law Harold and great-grandson, Shaun Evans, who is a member of the Dean Forest Railway (DFR).

Ivy, of Ruardean, was helped aboard engine number 5541 by Shaun who is waiting to become a cleaner on the footplate.

She lived near the railway line while growing up in Steam Mills and her cousin, Fred Billingham, was a guard on the Great Western Railway.

After climbing aboard she declined a seat and stood for the round trip with ’a nine mile-wide smile,” said DFR general manager Roger Phelps.

Ivy was born in June 1916 and now lives next door to her son-in-law and grandson in Ruardean Hill and is independent being a member of several groups including the Ruardean lunch club.

Mr Phelps said: “She was amazed at all the different things that had to be done on the engine.

“She said she wouldn’t have been able to lift the shovel to put on all that coal and as for spraying water to keep the dust down, she would never have thought of that.”

Mrs Pearce said: “That will be a memory for me to look back on – it was a lovely day.”