AFTER a life spent largely in the Exmoor farming community, and still living independently in her own home, Muriel Mason celebrated her 100th birthday on Wednesday.

Now living at Wembdon, near Bridgwater, Muriel still takes a lively interest in Exmoor life and has an uncanny recall of people, places and events of nearly a century ago.

Due to the current restrictions Muriel spent the special day with her daughter Val Webber, a former registered nurse, but was delighted by a visit from her eldest grandson Richard and great-grand children Jack, Harry and Emelia, who brought presents.

Muriel received phone calls from both her grandsons, her three nieces, a nephew and a cousin in Canada plus neighbours. As well as text messages from friends, Muriel had 23 cards and letters in total – including one from the Queen, seven bouquets, a rose bush, chocolates, sparkling wine, three cakes and biscuits! The occasion was also marked by a 100th birthday cake.

An accomplished horsewoman when she was young, Muriel remembers her mother riding side-saddle with the Devon and Somerset Hunt and the family’s involvement with the Exmoor pony herds.

Born Muriel Westcott at the family farm at Tarr Steps, Muriel was one of five children and her mother had been a professional cook in London. After Muriel’s father died when she was five her mother did cream teas and turned her home into a guesthouse and continued to run the farm with the help of her children.

Later the family moved to Exford where they provided a livery service for riders during the hunting season. After leaving school at 14, Muriel worked as a book-keeper in a local shop before becoming a military nurse in 1943.

While working in a Gloucester hospital treating badly-burned soldiers and airmen, Muriel contracted tuberculosis but returned to work after convalescing on Exmoor. After the war she returned to help her mother run the guesthouse and married her husband Bertram in 1951.

The couple lived and worked on several farms in the Exmoor area, including Dulverton, Porlock and Bilbrook before moving to Bridgwater where Bertram worked as a sales rep for an agricultural engineering company and Muriel enjoyed a life focussed on the family.

Her daughter, Val, said: “My mother still lives in her own house and is very independent. She walks with only one stick and enjoys spending time in her garden. Exmoor was her life for so long and she loves hearing what is going on there.”