Sprightly Amy Morgan who reached her centenary yesterday recalls her pride at officially opening Avenue La Fleche in the 1990s.

Mrs Morgan, of Westmead Lane, used to take the workmen building the new road Welsh cakes and tea so when it came to the duty of opening the new road they asked the then mayor if she could do the honours.

Mrs Morgan still lives in the cottage she bought in 1956, without any carers, and with the support of her son Derek, 71, and grandchildren Stephen and Wendy.

Mrs Morgan said: “They take care of me so I can stay at home.

“My body is wearing out but I still have my senses.”

When asked about the moment in 1996 when she became the first person to walk along Avenue La Fleche, which relieved the town centre of much of the town’s traffic, she said: “On my 87th birthday I was on the bridge of Avenue La Fleche when the mayor invited me to cut the ribbon and open the bridge.

“The workmen clubbed together to buy me some orchids and I was the first person to ever walk over the bridge.” Mrs Morgan was born in Calne in August 1909 and had three brothers Archie, Percy and Roy and four sisters - Lily, May, Nancy and Nora.

The family moved to Wales when Mrs Morgan was 12 years old and at 23 she married her childhood sweetheart Oliver Morgan.

The couple had one son Derek and Mr Morgan sadly died after just ten years of marriage.

Mrs Morgan moved back to Calne in 1953 and then on to Chippenham in 1956 where she took up the post as resident waitress at The Bear Hotel where she worked until she was 70. She says the biggest changes to the town in her lifetime are the increasing levels of unemployment and the shutting of all the major factories and shops – such as Oxo, Hygrade, Nestles and Woolworths.

She still manages to get out and about in the town when her granddaughter takes her out in her wheelchair.