A LYDNEY woman has celebrated her 100th birthday with a lunch for more than 30 friends and relatives at The Speech House.
Margaret Hughes, who has lived in Valley Road since the early 1930s, was born on November 18, 1901 – the year that Queen Victoria died – in Aylburton, the ninth of 10 children, four boys and six girls.
Mrs Hughes remembers her childhood days with warm affection and readily recalls incidents from almost a century ago, incidents vividly etched in her memory. Life then as she describes it had much of the slow-paced rustic charm colourfully captured in the pages of books like Cider with Rosie or the TV series Darling Buds of May.
Drinking water came from a well, rooms were lit by oil lamps, a visit to the loo meant a trip to the privvy in the orchard.
A large well stocked garden helped to feed the family. They also kept pigs and chickens, and their large orchard filled huge casks each year with home-made cider, much of it for sale.
In his spare time her father earned more cash to feed the family by touring the local villages with what was the first mobile (horse-drawn) cider-making plant in the area.
Short-distance travel was by foot, bicycle, or by horse, often horse and cart. Long journeys – perhaps to the seaside – were by rail. Air travel was the dream of the eccentric few and even the motor car was a rarity.
One of her earliest memories as a young girl is of seeing the first locally-owned car.
"I ran into the house and called one of my brothers. 'John, John, come and look. It's a car.' And we ran to the gate to watch it go by!"
It was owned, she thinks, by Dr Monsell and her recollection of it was that it may have been a three-wheeler.
Another early memory is more traumatic.
"I fell into the well, how I don't know, and was saved by a neighbour's boy."
In those pre-radio days – television, of course, was another generation away – everyone helped with the chores and children filled their own spare time. As they grew older, her brothers Fred, Arthur, John and Bill, who thrived on the outdoor country life, weren't averse to the odd poaching excursion. John was known for his skill at tickling trout – often from the stream in the Bledisloe estate – and all later learnt to fish for salmon and shrimp in the estuary.
Margaret studied the piano and for many years was church organist at Aylburton.
"I remember playing at the Sunday morning service at the church and then cycling up to the chapel on the Common to play the organ there."
In 1926 at St Mary's Church, Margaret married Lionel Hughes, of Lydney, at that time a tinplate worker. Later he worked for local businessman-millionaire John Watts, helping variously to run some of his hotels and the Ferneyley wine business opposite the cinema. During the second world war Mr Hughes raised thousands of pounds for the war effort and, much later, as the man in charge of Lydney Town Hall, brought top-name dance bands like Ted Heath and Joe Loss to Lydney, a major innovation in those days. He was also parish clerk for a number of years.
Mr and Mrs Hughes had two sons, Cedric, an accomplished all-round athlete who went on to become an England international hockey player, and Michael, who began his journalistic career on The Citizen, eventually becoming editor of Angling Times, and, later, regional public relations manager for Severn-Trent.
As the only surviving son Michael, who lives in Kenilworth, Warwickshire, hosted his mother's birthday lunch attended by friends, neighbours, carers and close relatives. They came from as far afield as Cardiff, Pontypool, Wrexham, Towcester, Kenilworth, Birmingham and Okehampton and the cards and messages of congratulations on her big day included telephone calls from family members in New Zealand and of course a message of congratulation for the Queen.
Mrs Hughes has five grandchildren and five great grandchildren, the oldest 14, the youngest a mere 99 years and five months younger than her.