THE oldest Resident of Fir Tree has turned a century.
Joyce Temple, nee Bell, was born, the youngest of four children, at Fawnlees, Wolsingham on March 17th 1926. In 1931, when she was five years old, the family moved to Wadley Farm, Fir Tree after Joyce’s father bought it. In 1937, she passed the 11+ and proceeded to Wolsingham Grammar School but ill health dogged her schooldays and eventually she asked to leave the school, her parents having to pay a ‘fine’ for her to leave early.
Joyce married in 1948, remaining in the village, and had two children – Michael and Judith. The house that Joyce lives in now was purchased in 1956 so she has been in the same house for 70 years! She brought up her children there and also managed to work too – all within the village- as a cleaner but also as the caretaker at the village school where she was a pupil herself – until it closed down in 1982. The village is not on a bus route although it used to be and Joyce learned to drive after the buses stopped in her early 50s and continued to drive up to her late 80s.
An independent lady, she still looks after herself most of the time, regularly taking a walk along the street and to visit the husband of her late niece, June, who was a teacher at her old school, Wolsingham, in the 1970s and 80s. She keeps herself busy, enjoys watching television, reading and looking forward to visits by her family, especially her grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
Four generations of her family began the birthday celebrations on Sunday (March 15th) in the nearby Duke of York, a stone’s throw from Joyce’s home, to enjoy Sunday lunch with the whole family. The occasion was made even more special when the local postie – Trevor Dunn from Howden-le-Wear – arrived to give her a very special envelope. It contained a birthday card from The King and signed by him and Queen Camilla. Joyce was delighted.
Her daughter, Judith, said, “Trevor arrived at just the right time, putting the icing on the cake. It was wonderful.”
On her birthday today, Joyce was visited by many people – family, friends and three members of the Residents’ Association who brought flowers and a card. Another villager, our editor, Anita, baked a cake, which although a little burned (she is no baker!), was enjoyed by the family who covered it with candles. “A hundred wouldn’t fit though,” quipped Joyce who has a wonderful sense of humour. She read the many cards without the need for spectacles and enjoyed all of the visitors.
Elaine Armstrong one of the members of the Residents’ Association who called in said, “Mrs Temple is bright as a button. She knows my husband’s family very well – they are a Fir Tree family – and we had a lovely conversation about them.
“She is very tuned in to what is happening.”
Born in the same year as the late Queen Elizabeth ll, Joyce has witnessed a century of news events around the world, including WW2 when prisoners from Harperley POW Camp would come to work on the farm where she lived. She witnessed the advent of radio and television, the birth of rock and roll, the advent of The Beatles with the swinging sixties, Teddy Boys, Mods, Skinheads, the Pill, holidays abroad, and, of course, the onset of the technological age with the world wide web and social media. So many changes have occurred in the last century and Joyce has seen it all.
One of the dozens of birthday cards she received outlined events from the year of her birth, including the fact that Marilyn Monroe was born then too. Joyce quipped that it hadn’t mentioned the General Strike, which was easily the main news story of the year! Joyce likes to read the news with one of birthday presents being a large book containing many of the front page headlines over the last 100 years, which she is greatly looking forward to reading.
Joyce Temple enjoyed the centenary celebrations although she was bemused by the fuss of it all, taking it in her stride and smiling bemusedly – and contentedly too!
Congratulations, Joyce, you are an amazing lady – many happy returns.
