Pensioner, 104, puts her three-bedroom home purchased for £200 up for sale after living in it for more than a century
21 March 2023, 08:36 | Updated: 21 March 2023, 08:39
A pensioner who has lived in her Somerset home for over a Century has announced she's putting the three-bedroom property on the market, after revealing her family first purchased the deeds for £200.
Nancy Gifford, 104, was born just after the end of the First World War and has now lived in the property, in the small village of Street, for 102 years.
Moving into the terraced house at the age of 2-years-old, Ms Gifford's family purchased the house in 1921 for the equivalent of £10,000 in today's money.
Built in 1882, the property originally featured a communal well for the entire road with an outdoor toilet and tin bath.
Images taken over the course of her lifetime show the original garden wall still standing, despite the surrounding landscape changing dramatically over time.
Now valued at £169,950 by estate agents, Ms Gifford went to school in the village and met her late husband, Bert, while walking between her home and the town of Glastonbury during the mid-1930s.
Ms Gifford's son, John, 79, is one of two children and still lives in the property with his mother.
Speaking of his memories, John said: 'When I was a youngster, there were so many lovely families that lived along the road, and we all knew each other.
"The times we had as children were fantastic, going across the fields, jumping over ditches, bird nesting, and swimming in the rivers, so many things children don't do these days."
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"Back in the day most children our age knew everybody, and we all had an open house, and it was fine to leave your door on the latch.
"We were all poor, but everyone was happy."
Bert and Nancy first met after both were walking with friends, with Bert whistling at Nancy and her group to catch their attention.
The pair later married in 1939 during the onset of the Second World War, before he was sent to Scarborough to train as a radio operator.
Moving out of the property due to declining health, Nancy is set to move into a nursing home in nearby Glastonbury.
Jack Bartram, the manager of Holland and Odam estate agents in Street, said: "Buying and selling houses is the day job for us, but every so often you stumble across a wonderful story, and Mrs Gifford's is one of those.
"There aren't many who live to the great age of 104, let alone have lived in the same house for 102 years."
