AT the age of 100 years former nurse Rose Rawlings can still name all the family shops that lined both sides of Marlborough's vast High Street in her childhood.

Mrs Rawlings celebrated her centenary on Friday with a family party at The Priory in the High Street where she has lived since 1975.

Although suffering from failing eyesight and being a touch hard of hearing, the great grandmother has retained an acute memory of her childhood days.

She was born in a former workhouse in Union Place by the Marlborough College gym.

Her father, David Rogers, was a soldier in the Zulu and Boer wars and worked for local firm Hilliers, which built the town hall.

Mr Rogers was paid £5 a year by Marlborough College to maintain the town's white horse that stands on its land. Mrs Rawlings recalls annually helping her father dig out the discoloured chalk and replace it.

In her childhood Empire Day was a big annual event and her teacher used to get the class to look out of the school window and see the Union flag flying.

Mrs Rawlings had two brothers, the elder was killed in the First World War and the other died in childhood, two sisters and an adopted sister.

She was married at St Peter's Church in 1928 to cabinet maker, Jack Rawlings, who died in 1970. Mrs Rawlings has a son, David, and daughter, Rosemary, four grandchildren, eight great grandchildren and four great great grandchildren.