DOROTHY Stones, who celebrates her 100th birthday on 27th December, has lived in Grange Road, Sale for a century.

Dorothy was born in 1916 at no 14 where her parents, Ernest and Gladys lived at Mrs Jones’s lodging house.

Her parents, rented another house in 1917.

“I played outside because there were no cars. I counted the cars on one hand through the window.”

Dorothy’s sister, Pam was born there when she was 14 and the two still live together in the same house.

“Ten years after our father, a potato merchant, died in 1936, the owners said they wanted to sell.

“Because it hadn’t been decorated, the solicitor reduced the price to £450

“We had electricity installed. My sister remembers taking a candle to bed to save on the gas lights.

“Even so, you weren’t much thought of for living down Grange Road. They were working class people.

“After the war, we were thrilled to see the streetlights back following the blackout.”

Their mother died in 1986.

Dorothy was employed at the Linotype Works in Broadheath for 14 years where she helped the war effort. She joined Churchills Machine Tool Company in 1945. Following redundancy in 1972 she worked four more years at the Linotype before retiring.

Dorothy helped the Home Guard on the corner of Raglan Road from 1939-45.

Before going to Secretarial College aged 14, she attended St Mary’s School.

She went to Sunday School at the since demolished Barkers Lane Chapel where Dorothy Ball, who later lived in a bungalow in Grange Road, taught her.

Dorothy has been a member of Sale, West Timperley and Ashton-on-Mersey Towns Women’s Guilds.

“We are having people round for my party and a friend’s granddaughter has baked a cake.”