FORMER air-raid warden Connie Nicholls celebrated her 101st birthday on Monday, marking the occasion in the company of her daughter, Rosemary.

Born in Salisbury in 1908, Mrs Nicholls has lived in the area all her life, and said she has never wanted to move away. Over the years, in fact, she has lived in three different houses on the same street. Leaving the house she was born in following her marriage to Sidney, a civil servant, in 1938, Mrs Nicholls moved from number 5 Stratford Road to number 13, before, remarkably, a later move took her next door to number 15.

It was while she and her husband lived in their second Stratford Road home that their son, Gerald, and daughter, Rosemary, were born.

She now lives at Ashley Grange Nursing Home in Downton.

A housewife in peacetime, Mrs Nicholls performed the important role of air raid warden for her area during the Second World War.

In less turbulent times she liked to keep pets: a range of cats and dogs, as well as a talking pet parrot, named Polly. She has also been a keen gardener, at one time working on three different allotments, a fitting testament to her family’s long agricultural heritage.

And what’s her secret to a long and happy life? According to Mrs Nicholls the answer is simple - plenty of home grown vegetables.