A HALSTEAD resident has reached a very special milestone as she celebrates her 100th birthday.

Edith Manning, who lives on Warren Road, celebrated with family and friends on January 13.

Edith has been living in Halstead since 1993 when she moved in with her husband Percy.

Edith is now a mother of three, grandmother of eight, great-grandmother of 16 and great-great grandmother of four known across her family as "Big Nanna".

To mark the great-great grandmother of four's 100th birthday, the family held a party at Colne Valley Golf Club.

Rocking up in style, Edith arrived in a vintage Rolls Royce to greet around 60 extended family members who came to celebrate with her.

Son, Geoff, said: "It is a tremendous achievement for mum to reach such a great age and we are all very proud of her."

Despite being born in Surrey, Edith lived in a number of places in Essex after moving to Ingatestone, including Highwood near Chelmsford, Burnt House Farm in Sible Hedingham and Gosfield.

Initially she was only planning on moving to Essex on a temporary basis to help her brother settle into his new home but after meeting her husband, Percy Manning she decided to stay.

She said: "The plan was me to work for him for six months, but it didn’t quite work out that way in the end because I stayed a bit longer than that."