‘Lucky’ Eleanor celebrates

From the archive, first published Tuesday 24th Apr 2007.

A family party was being held today to mark a great, great grandmother's 100th birthday.

Eleanor Stoyles was joined by daughters Irene, 77, and Valerie, 64, sons John, 72 and Geoffrey, 66, and some of her 13 grandchildren, 27 great grandchildren and three great, great grandchildren.

Mrs Stoyles, a widow, lived in Bierley for half a century before she moved to the Norman Lodge Residential Home in Glenroyd Avenue, Odsal. She was born in Little Horton and attended All Saints and Whetley Lane schools.

She was made an orphan at eight-years-old and went to live with an aunt in the Lister Hills area. When she left school at 13, she worked as a twister at Whiteheads Mill in Girlington, before leaving for London in 1928 and marrying her husband, Joseph.

She said: "It's marvellous to be 100 - somebody must be looking out for me up there."

Daughter Irene said: "She's always been an avid reader, a keen shopper and loved going to the pictures. She's very lucky to reach 100, when she was ten she fell into a quarry and was unconscious for ten days."