Ketton villager celebrates 100th birthday

For 100-year-old Dorothy Wright, home is where the heart is.

Her busy family life and work have revolved around the village that she has called ‘home’ for a whole century.

And perhaps Ketton’s manay charms have played their part in her having such a long and happy life so far.

Dorothy attended the village school as a girl, then Oakham Central School, which she left at 14 to begin her first full-time job, as a waitress at nearby Luffenham Golf Club.

As the Second World War effort ramped up, Dorothy took a job at Ketton’s cement works as a tester in the laboratory, which she described as ‘different’. While it might not have been her dream job, at the time there was a huge demand for cement due to the construction of military bases and defences.

It was at an annual village event, Ketton Feast, that Dorothy met her future husband, Alfred.

She said: “My friend and I were out for a walk on the feast Sunday, and two of the young men from one of the bands followed us.

“I married one and she married the other.”

Although Alfred, a cornet player from Stamford, came across as ‘quiet’ initially, he won over Dorothy while out on a a double date with friends, and they married at the village church in 1945.

Married life began living with Dorothy’s parents, Florence and Percival, before renting the house next door.

Alfred, who lived to be 94, would cycle into Stamford to work as a sheet metal worker at Martin Markham, while Dorothy stayed home looking after their four children, Michael, Paul, Richard and Geoffrey.

Michael is now 74 and Paul is 66, but Richard and Geoffrey have died. There are eight grandchildren in the family, and 13 great-grandchildren.

Michael says his mum is ‘the glue that sticks the family together’.

But after her children flew the nest, Dorothy found ways to keep busy. She learned to swim and to drive, and took a job for a bakery, delivering bread across the area.

“When I first learned to drive I was showing off,” she recalled. “The baker was talking to somebody in a bungalow in Pit Lane and said I would move the vehicle - and backed straight over the railway line, the doors flew open and the bread fell out.

Laughing, Dorothy recalled: “We picked it up and dusted it off!”

The secret to her long life is keeping busy, she believes, and up until recently Dorothy was an avid painter and enjoyed flower arranging.

She also gardened with Alfred before his death a decade ago, and was a member of many village groups.

Although her love for Ketton doesn’t falter, she says the village has changed dramatically over the years.

“It has become much bigger than it was but we have lost lots of the shops and some of the pubs,” she said.

“There were three butchers, three bakers, countless pubs, six shops and milk delivery straight from the farms.”

Dorothy will be spending her 100th birthday (Friday, January 22) with family and friends at home in High Street - the seventh house in Ketton where she has lived. A party is also planned.

Her card from King Charles III has already arrived, and is on display.