Whitby woman Edith Pearson set to celebrate her 100th birthday

Edith Pearson (nee Burnett) is due to mark the happy occasion with a party at Whitby’s Larpool Lane Care Home, where she lives.

Born in at Soulsgrave Farm in Sneaton, Edith was the youngest of Frank Burnett and Alice Johnson’s four children.

She lived there for two years before moving to Littlebeck. Edith lived at Bay Horse Inn, then the cottage and then at Daisy Bank.

She recalls she had a dolly called Betty and a little black dog that pulled along on wheels.

She remembers it being bought at Boyes Stores in Scarborough for 6 pence.

Edith said there was little entertainment when she was young, but they had Empire day once a year where they ran races in a field next to Littlebeck School which she attended and then had tea in the village hall.

There was a Sunday school, which held a party of games and a tea at Intake Farm, just out of the village.

Edith was taken to Whitby to a picture house to see Shirley Temple about once a year.

When she left school, she went to help her sister on West Skelder Farm, near Dunsley.

Then Edith went to be a housemaid at a private house in Whitby, staying there until she was married.

Edith recalls: “When I started work I only got 10 shillings, or 50p in today’s money, for one week’s wage”.

Edith met Thomas Boyes Pearson at a country dance.

They would cycle to a dance, go to a picture house or sometimes attend a dance at The Spa in Whitby.

Edith married Thomas on May 19, 1945, at Brunswick Methodist church in Whitby.

The wedding reception was held at Ivy’s farm.

Edith and Ivy both baked the wedding cake but food was still rationed as it was just the end of the Second World War.

Their honeymoon was spent in Keswick.

Shortly after the marriage, Edith and Thomas moved to Fairfield Farm in Whitby (now the trading estate where Sainsbury’s is situated).

Edith initially ran the farm as a B&B for what’s now less than £1 a night and included breakfast, dinner, tea and washing.

This enabled them to pay back money loaned to them from family to buy cattle.

They had two children – Ronald and Mavis.

Edith and Thomas ran the farm until the farm was compulsory purchased in the 1980s.

They moved shortly after to a bungalow on St Andrew’s Road in Whitby, where they spent the rest of their years together.

Edith and Thomas celebrated their diamond wedding anniversary in 2005 at The Salmon Leap, Sleights, where they’d celebrated their golden anniversary in 1995. They received a card from Queen Elizabeth II for their diamond anniversary.

Thomas sadly passed away shortly after their diamond anniversary.

Edith spent much of her years caring for her family, including her five grandchildren and later her six great-grandchildren.

Edith continues to live a happy life at Larpool Lane care home, where she will be celebrating her 100th birthday.

In the summer, she was picked to officially name and cut the ribbon for the opening of the refurbished summer house at Larpool Care Home, which Edith named Riverbank Retreat.