The great grandmother-of-three was celebrating her 106th birthday on Monday with a quiet gathering of her nearest and dearest at her Preston home.

She said: "I don't make a fuss. I'll get a bit of something in – a pavlova – and I've got some chocolates and some nuts."

And the former silk weaver, who lives with her retired joiner son Bernard, 73, reckons she owes her longevity to her simple life ... plus 10 cups of sugary tea every day and the occasional glass of port wine.

She said: "I live a quiet life. We go to bed early, we don't go gallivanting at night. When we've done our day's work, we've always rested.

"We haven't always had a car so you get used to staying in and it's been better since television came – you've got something to watch."

Born Jane Fiddler on August 25, 1902, to Christopher and Jane Fiddler, she started work in the mills in 1915.

Jane said: "I used to get up in the dark with candlelight in the back kitchen and have a butty with a little mug of tea and then get to work.

"I can remember it as if it was yesterday – it was horrible. A day seemed like a week then."

Jane, who taught herself to play the piano aged four, said: "We were happier somehow. We were poor but we were free."

In 1932, she married joiner and builder Bernard Spencer Baldwin and the couple had two children, Bernard and Maureen. Maureen died, aged 42.

The couple moved to Lea from Ashton and kept 3,000 chickens until the war.

Jane, who was widowed in 1976, looks back fondly on the tough war years but she is grateful for some of the technological advances since.

She said: "It's been a lot better with washers and central heating because we had a washing boiler in the back kitchen. We had a fire underneath it. You used to have to get it boiling and boil all the clothes."

Despite her years, she has no ailments and shows no sign of slowing down. She can still be found in the kitchen rustling up a hearty meal of fillet steak, rack of lamb or roast beef every day.

She said: "I work all day. I do my own baking and everything. We just have plain food but good food.

"I don't eat pizzas. I've only had one pizza and I didn't like it. I thought you might as well put all this on a butty as buy one of them."

And she will be tucking into some birthday cake as she awaits delivery of yet another telegram from the Queen!