A SIMPLE life and good food – that’s part of the secret of a long life for Gertrude “Min” Ascott, of Bridport who celebrated her 100th birthday.

A party was held for friends and family to mark the occasion, with a cake baked by good neighbour Vera Brown at Hibernia Close, North Allington. A message from the Queen made it a birthday to remember for Min.

Min is short for Minnie, whose very survival was a bit of a miracle as she was born prematurely weighing just two pounds.

The second eldest of seven children, of whom only brother Reg and sister Lilian still survive, Min was born at Pendomer, near Yeovil.

She grew up helping her father on the family farms, moving to Cowcroft in Somerset and then to Filford Farm at Salway Ash.

After her father died, she went to work as a housekeeper in Beaminster and then for Frank Rapsey in Wootton Fitzpaine.

She later moved back to North Street in Beaminster and, after a bad fall, moved to the supported housing at Hibernia Close, where she has been living for 25 years.

Min still lives independently, but her daughter, Ruth McMaster, pops in every day and looks after her.

Min loves to knit and produces yards of blanket strips which are stitched together and then donated to hospitals.

She has four grandchildren and 11 great-grandchildren.