A keen biker who was born in Edwardian Watford and has lived no more than a stone's thrown away from the town ever since has celebrated her 100th birthday.

Violet Crassweller, a daughter of a railway striker, was born in Watford on September 9, 1909.

One of three children, Violet, her brother, Sonny, and her sister, Vera, grew up in Leavesden Road.

Violet met her future husband, a printer called Walter Crassweller, while the pair both worked at the Greycaine printing works, off Bushey Mill Lane.

Violet's son, Alan, said: “That was where they met.

“She was just doing general work, she was working in the folding department and he was an operator in the same department.”

The pair briefly lived in Bricket Wood, before moving back to Watford to a house in Cecil Street.

Violet then had Alan, her only child, before Walter was sent to the front-line following the outbreak of the World War 2.

“He was one of the Dessert Rats in the 8th Army,” Alan said, “he was out in the dessert for about six years. He fought at Battle of El Alamein and all round there.

“I was nine when he came back out, I think I saw him twice in those six years.”

Asked what the secret to her long life is, Violet says it was the hard work she had to undertake during those hard war years while her husband was away.

Violet said: “During the war I was on my hands and knees scrubbing the hospital floors. It was hard work but it kept us going.

“I think it helped me.”

After the war Violet and Walter became keen bikers, speeding off to all corners of the country on Walter's motorbike.

The pair enjoyed annual holidays in Devon “My husband always had a motorbike, we had a lot of journeys on it,” Violet said.

“He used to say he didn't even know I was on the back of it.

“Some people when they ride they move around but he used to say he never knew I was there because I was so still.

“We used to go miles away. I loved it.”

Violet, who is now a resident at Pinewood Lodge, in South Oxhey, celebrated her birthday with a party on yesterday (Wednesday) afternoon attended by five generations of her family.

She was also delighted to open a birthday card from The Queen.

She said: “It was a lovely card. I shall treasure that.”