A CENTENARIAN celebrated her 100th birthday with a party on Saturday (March 15) in the Hampshire village where she was born.

Maud Moore, who turned 100 on Wednesday, March 5, lives at Spring House, Spring Lane, Colden Common, only a couple of hundred yards from where she grew up in New Road.

Her parents, George and Kate Rolfe, had two sons, Bert and George, before Maud arrived on March 5, 1908.

She went to school in the village, joined the Brownies, and then became a patrol leader in the Guides.

Her family managed to find enough money for her to attend Barton Peveril Grammar School - now a college - in Eastleigh. Reaching it was tricky, as without cars or a bus service, Maud cycled 10 miles to lessons and back each day.

After leaving school she became an apprentice at D C Edmonds, a high class fashion shop in Winchester, before switching to the Edwin Jones store in Southampton as a sales assistant.

She left when she tied the knot with George Moore on 27 June 1936 at Holy Trinity Church, Colden Common.

The couple, who had no children, spent their entire married life in a bungalow at Shaftesbury Avenue, Chandler's Ford.

Mrs Moore became a keen gardener, and after her father died, her mother lived with them for many years. She then spent her final years in a rest home, where she reached her century.

Her daughter has now achieved the same feat, and celebrated with friends and family at Spring House on Wednesday, March 5.

She moved there 14 years ago, having remained in Chandler's Ford for a decade after her husband's death in 1984.

Not only is Spring House near Mrs Moore's childhood home, but it occupies the site where her mother's old house, The Rosary, once stood.

Further celebrations were held on Saturday, March 15, with a special service at Holy Trinity Church and a party at Colden Common Community Centre.

Mrs Moore asked guests not to bring presents, but to make donations to Naomi House Children's Hospice in Sutton Scotney.