TWO Vale women, each with a lifetime of stories to tell, have celebrated their 100th birthdays.

Emily Major, who lives in Pitchill House Care Home, Salford Priors, was born in Evesham’s Avonside on June 14, 1913. As a child she lived in Rynal Place with her parents, three sisters and one brother and attended Swan Lane First School.

At the age of 14 Mrs Major went to live in Chelsea where she worked at the home of the family behind Sandeman’s port for three years.

She then returned to the Vale and Rynal Place and worked at the Woolpack in Port Street.

Her daughter Jane Major said: “She started as a barmaid.

My dad used to go in there and they started going out. Then they married at Bengeworth Church on March 18, 1932.”

Mrs Major and her husband James, a market gardener, had five children; three girls and two boys.

Mrs Major now has 11 grandchildren, 21 great grandchilren and seven great-great grandchildren.

Her daughter added: “Mum is a happy-go-lucky person and she enjoys a drink sometimes.

She has good genes; her brother lived to 104.”

Meanwhile, former school teacher Dorothy Haynes also had a date to remember when she celebrated her centenary at Briarlea Care Home, Badsey, last Thursday.

Born in Bolton, Miss Haynes came to the Vale about three years ago to be closer to her brother, Harold, and his daughter.

Mr Haynes said. “My parents had four children. The middle two are not with us any more. Dorothy is 15 years older than me and refers to me as her baby brother because she used to take me out in the pram.

“She used to be a fire watcher in the war when she was 17. Someone had to stay up all night and make sure any bombs were not left burning on the roof.

“If she saw any she put them into a bucket of sand.

She is quite fresh in her mind and she loves a joke and reminiscing.”