A MAGNUM of champagne helped residents at a Colne residential home celebrate Nellie Irving's 100th birthday today.

Nellie, whose grandson Alistair Little is a TV chef and regular on Ready, Steady, Cook and judge on Masterchef, enjoyed a grand party and a visit from Pendle mayor Coun Jo Belbin at Stanroyd House Residential Home, Keighley Road.

Proprietor Anita Lyness said: "Nellie is the first of our residents to celebrate her 100th birthday so we bought a big magnum of champagne." Nellie, who comes from Colne and worked as a weaver in mills, has been at the nine-resident home for five-and-a-half years.

Before that she lived with her daughter Marion Little in Charles Street and is regularly visited by her famous grandson Alistair, who owns two London restaurants and a chef school in Italy.

Nellie, a widow, also has a son Edward who lives in Canada.

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