Birthday treat for 90 year old Evelyn

90 year old Evelyn Bevan, of Turkey Road, was given a birthday party at the Cooden Beach Hotel by her older sister Vi Lyell, of Lawrence House in Camperdown Street - who is herself 97.

Their relative Eileen Sandy, of Collington Avenue, said: "The Cooden Beach Hotel was full of friends and relations - there were about 50 of us, and some came from far afield, such as Buckinghamshire and Wales. It was just a gathering of all the relatives, we haven't seen each other for a long,long time."

Evelyn was a WAF during the war and her husband was in the RAF, so the party included a patriotic theme with a table of photographs and union jack decorations.

The sisters were born and bred in Little Common - part of the well-known Cheese family that lived in Pond Cottage.

"They were very well known - there were eleven children in a two-up two-down. Very hard times. Now these are the younger ones who are left, just four of them. Their 88 year old brother Stan Cheese, from Ninfield, came as well for the afternoon, but their 93 year old brother Laurie from Bournemouth was unable to come."