HARD work is the key to long life, according to Doris Spencer.

The grandmother of two and great- grandmother of seven celebrated her 103rd birthday on Tuesday at the Orchards Residential Home, in Wroughton, where she is known as the Queen Of The Orchards.

She celebrated with a party and traditional songs.

Doris, who was one of nine children, said she had been employed from a young age to provide for her siblings, but thought that had stood her in good stead.

“It kept me busy,” she said. “I always had to work. I used to do the housework and everything, but I enjoyed doing it.

“It’s very difficult at the moment because I’m being waited on hand and foot.”

Doris started work at Fry’s chocolate factory in Bristol after she left school. At the start of the First World War the company was one of the largest employers in the town, but it was merged with Cadbury’s and moved to Somerdale, Keynsham, in 1923, ending Doris’ employment.

Even today she maintains that Fry’s chocolate tasted better.

Doris’ work was mainly packing and foiling the chocolate, but she said cleanliness was very important.

She said: “When we got inside the door in the mornings there was a lady stood there and you had to show your hands and if you had anything on your nails you had to go straight to the nursery and have it washed off.

“You didn’t have a hair showing from under your cap, we wore lace ones in the summer.”

Doris was paid 13 shillings a week for her hours, also received performance-related piece work pay on top.

In her first week she was able to take home £3 – more than her father was earning at an iron foundry.

Doris said she had enjoyed her work and made many friends and had the benefits of working surrounded by chocolate.

She said: “Every month we could buy chocolate, though I expect I might have taken a bit occasionally when nobody was looking.”

She met her husband Herbert at the end of the Second World War, shortly after he had returned from being a prisoner of war in Germany.

They were married when she was 33 and moved to Surrey Road, in Rodbourne.

Herbert died when he was in his 70s, but Doris continued to live in Rodbourne, virtually independently, until she moved to the residential home last June.

She had one daughter and spent several years working part-time at the Plessey factory.

“I had a lovely life because I had a marvellous husband,” she said. “I only regret losing my husband.”

Residential home manager Lesley Wood said: “She’s fantastic, she’s the funniest.

“She called herself the Queen Of The Orchards, one of the staff called her Queenie and it’s stuck.

“She’s remarkable for her age, she’s so switched on, she wouldn’t let anyone get away with anything.”