Irene's still cooking on gas at 100 years young

Celebrations for the 100th birthday of Torquay resident Mrs Irene Mudge, whose family is no stranger to a long life.
Her mother lived to be 108 and her brother Bob died only recently at the grand old age of 104.
Although Irene is in constant touch with her large family – three children, six grandchildren and 11 grandchildren is the latest count – she still does her own cooking.
"I often make a traditional roast dinner or a casserole, and although I like an occasional lasagne I don’t make it myself – there’s a bit too much messing about for me," says Irene. ‘But I still like to make a cottage pie and I do love my veg."
Her centenary was celebrated with a party organised by her family at the Babbacombe Hotel, where she displayed her many cards of congratulations which included one from King Charles, which now goes with her mother’s similar card from the late Queen Elizabeth – a rare distinction for any family. Irene was married to her late husband Bob for 63 years and both worked for the Post Office.
Cooking wasn’t Irene’s only skill and years ago she would knit hundreds of garments for charity, which were sent abroad, but these days she prefers a quiet read of the books from Torquay Library, which are delivered to her on a monthly basis by the volunteers from Torquay Rotary Club, with the books being chosen by the library’s own volunteers who keep records of readers’ tastes.
"I used to get the books from the mobile library which parked just outside my house but that finished some years ago, so I was delighted when the Rotary club continued the service,’ says Irene.
"I just like what I call light reading and certainly not murders all the time – and I always enjoy a chat with Mike, who brings the month’s new books and takes the old ones away."
Irene has no idea whether her family are directly descended from the 17th century Mudges of Torquay. Matthew Mudge, for instance, was born in 1782, and occupied Manor farm at Upton for so long that it came to be named after him. And nearby Upton Hill was once known as Mudge’s Hill, as recorded in Deryck Seymour’s 1963 history of the area.
Maybe a local genealogist will one day prove that Irene does indeed have a very large family.