by Sue Read

BORN before World War One ended, living through World War Two, Mrs Lily Sercombe’s family joined her on Thursday (June 15) to celebrate her 100th birthday when banners outside her home told the world how old she was.

Mrs Sercombe was born at Hennock but has lived in the Tedburn St Mary area since before she married George in 1940 at Tedburn Methodist Church.

Mrs Sercombe, née Lily Holwill, still lives in the bungalow they moved to 25 years ago, but George passed away nearly 14 years ago.

George had worked with cows for most of his life, for the nine years before he retired he worked for Exeter City Council in the Parks Department.

During the last war he had been a member of Tedburn St Mary Home Guard and Mrs Sercombe remembers there was a searchlight station beside their home on the edge of Tedburn on the Whitestone road near to the Bromell family. The searchlight’s swivelling light was powered by a generator through the night.

She well remembers how German bombers, when they missed an Exeter target, would often drop their bombs nearby.

She had gone to school in Hennock. Both she and George were from families of six children. Her father had served in the Army in France during World War One, but was injured. Mrs Sercombe still well remembers the day he died when she was six-years-old.

The family had to move from their tied home then, Mrs Sercombe soon taking her part in sharing the housework and cooking - no modern appliances then, certainly not a washing machine.

She said her two-mile walk to school, apart from being all uphill on the way there, took her past the one of the mines at Hennock, still working then and where a cousin had worked.

Meat was delivered from Bovey Tracey by horse transport, the baker coming from Lustleigh also with a horse-drawn van.

Mrs Sercombe remembers being so intrigued when the first motorised vehicles came into the village. Years later, her husband drove the first tractor, a Fergie, at Town Barton, Tedburn St Mary.

In 1964 they bought Rydon near Cheriton Bishop, moving to their bungalow from there.

They both enjoyed gardening and were renowned for their floral displays in the summer at Tedburn.

Mrs Sercombe had worked in hotels in Cheriton Bishop for a time, well remembering when the Williams family owned The Old Thatch.

Mr Williams would call to collect her at 4.30am to begin serving breakfasts at 5am on Saturdays through the summer before the new A30 opened, thus almost isolating villages such as Cheriton Bishop.

They often would serve 150 breakfasts to passing motorists in a morning. For 14 years after that Mrs Sercombe was a Home Help until she retired 35 years ago.

Both were cleaners at Cheriton Cross Methodist Church until it closed some years ago.

Both also attended the Acorn lunches for the elderly in Cheriton where Mrs Sercombe’s trifles were renowned.

Mrs Sercombe has two sons, one living in Exeter the other not far away at Cheriton Bishop, five grand children and nine great grandchildren.

Her eyesight is sharp, as is her hearing and her brain most certainly is. Mrs Sercombe says when people ask what is her secret for being so good at her age, she says she does not really have any idea and, apart from a painful knee, she would be “as fit as a fiddle”.