A GREAT grandfather who celebrated his 100th birthday last Thursday, puts his health and independence down to good Welsh farming stock.

Bill Allen, of Sanderson Close, Newton Aycliffe, was brought up in rural Wales and says it was his start in life that has kept him strong for a century.

Mr Allen worked in iron mines, on building sites, for the Electric Board and on railway lines before retiring - although he continued to clean windows until he was 85.

It was during a stretch working on a London building site that he met his wife Elleanor, whom he looked after at home until she died four years ago aged 86.

The couple set up home and started a family in Wales but when Glamorgan was bombed during the Second World War they moved and settled in Elleanor's native North-East.

Mr Allen says his six children, Kelwyn, who died, Dawn, Ann, Pauline, John and Trevor, 15 grandchildren and 22 great grandchildren are the most important part of his life. He said: "I've valued simple things like family life and enjoyed singing, gardening, crosswords, walking and always cycled until recently."