believe housing helps peterlee customer celebrate 100th birthday

A former wartime canteen girl who helped support Bevin Boys working in County Durham’s coalfields has celebrated her 100th birthday. 

May Edwards, a believe housing customer, marked the milestone on Friday, 4 September.

To help celebrate the occasion, Neighbourhood Officers Kim Corfield and Beverly Goodwin visited her with a birthday card and a hamper on behalf of the landlord. 

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Originally from Horden, May has lived in the same Peterlee home for more than 60 years after moving to the new town with her late husband, Stanley. 

Born May Savage, she played her own part in the war effort as a teenager working at the miners’ hostel in Horden, which accommodated Bevin Boys, young men conscripted to work in Britain’s coal mines during and after the Second World War to help tackle a critical fuel shortage. 

As a tea bar attendant, May worked in the kitchen, serving tea, coffee and meals to miners working at Horden and Easington collieries. 

She said: “I was proud of that job; it was my bit for the war effort. It was a paid job and I had a little room to sleep in. I was a canteen girl, helping in the kitchen and making tea and coffee for the lads, who were lovely and worked so hard. 

“I had wanted to work in the munitions factory in Sheffield, but I wasn’t old enough. Looking back, it was for the best.” 

May later worked in a drapery shop in Horden and met and fell in love with a young man working at the nearby butcher’s, Stanley Edwards, who she married in 1948. 

As Peterlee was being built, the couple were delighted to secure a home in the town and went on to raise their children, Alan and Glynis. 

Now widowed and a grandmother, May said: “I have a lovely big family and they come to help me with the jobs I cannot do myself, but I like to keep busy and try to keep active. I have a little four-wheeler to whizz around. 

“My garden has always been one of my great pleasures, I still like the borders to look good.

“My family take me for a look out, we go all over. I enjoy a garden centre trip and going out for food. I’m lucky that way.”