A GREAT great grandmother who has lived on a Barrow farm for almost 80 years is celebrating her 100th birthday today.

Lucy Hayton has lived at Sandscale Farm in Roanhead since 1937 and believes the secret to reaching the three-digit milestone is hard labour.

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The 100-year-old oversaw the cooking and cleaning at the busy farmhouse, catering for up to 20 farm workers during the busy hay time and harvest.

Lucy says: "We survived without all the mod cons for a long time.

"It was very, very hard work but you just get on with it.

"Everybody was in the same boat.

"People didn't need to go to the gym them days."

Lucy, who has 13 grandchildren, 16 great grandchildren and two great great grandchildren, was born in Barrow during the First World War and brought up in Maple Street.


Lucy Hayton celebrates her 100th birthday and 80 years at Sandscale Farm. LEANNE BOLGER As a girl she worked at The Grand Hotel in Grange before she went to the old Sandscale Farm in 1937 where she fell in love with the farmer John Hayton. The couple had six children together: Eileen, Brenda, Ernie, John, Jean and Shirley.

During the Second World War, the Haytons tirelessly supported the UK war effort, farming sheep, cattle, pigs, geese, turkeys and crops.

Lucy even recalls an unusual event during the war when a plane crash landed in the nearby sandhills and a bewildered American GI eventually made his way to Sandscale Farm and asked where he was. Lucy replied: "That is Lowsey Point, Barrow-in-Furness, England" to which he said, "It sure is lousy!"

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Between the 1940s and 60s Lucy and John reared Clydesdale horses and won many prizes for their immaculately groomed equestrian animals in shows across the country.

They moved from the old Sandscale Farm to the current property in Hawthwaite Lane in 1961.

John died in 1971 and since then Lucy has continued to live at Sandscale with her two sons, Ernie and John.

She says: "The old farm had no electric, no washing machine - just the sweeping brush.

"I had a mangle just like the one that's in the Dock Museum. John got me it and it had two rollers - I thought I was the Queen!"