108! Hilda is Oldham’s oldest citizen

Photo: Picture by DARREN ROBINSON

RAISE a glass . . . birthday girl Hilda Jackson enjoys a glass of sherry for her 108th birthday.

OLDHAM’S oldest resident raised a glass today to toast her 108th birthday with a tot of sherry.

Proud Oldhamer and avid Evening Chronicle fan Hilda Jackson is believed to be not only the borough’s oldest, resident, but also Lancashire’s.

When asked about that accolade, she replied: “Well somebody’s got to be!”

The great-grandmother is now the same age as the UK’s oldest living man, the Rev Thomas Reginald Dean, from Wirksworth, Derbyshire, who is also 108.

But she needs a few more candles on her birthday cake to rival the UK’s oldest resident, Violet Wood, from Whitstable, who is 111.

Born in 1903, the year the Wright Brothers made their first powered flight, Hilda enjoys a sip of sherry every day at Werneth Lodge Care Home, in Manchester Road, where she lives.

The fiercely independent centenarian lived on her own in Harrow Avenue, Hollins, before moving to the care home when she was 102.

One of three sisters, Hilda’s father was a butcher who ran four shops in Oldham.

Her late husband, Herbert, was a maintenance engineer with the Co-op and Hilda was a telephonist at Platt Brothers Engineering during her working life.

She enjoyed watching plays at the Lyceum Theatre, Oldham, and was a keen bridge player at the Lyceum well into her late 90s.

Her only son, Peter, died in 2004. Hilda has three grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.

Kerry Heffron, care assistant, said: “Hilda is a lovely lady and she can be as bright as a button and quite chatty. She always carries a handbag around with her which contains a few shilling coins.”