Bristol woman celebrates 100th birth
As she celebrates her birthday today, her clear and colourful memories are aided by the big red book of nostalgia presented by her daughter and granddaughter.
Antoinette Powle was born in Ross-on-Wye in Herefordshire where her father ran a specialist bookshop, as well as the weekly-published Ross Gazette newspaper.
The family moved to Stoke Lane in Westbury-on-Trym after the paper was sold. At the time, Stoke Lane was a single track fairly rough road, with a stream running alongside.
Netta said: "The house was quite modern with gas lighting downstairs but one had to collect a candlestick to light the candle before going to bed."
By 1914, war had been declared and a young Netta can remember soldiers gathering by the Artillery Ground, in Whiteladies Road, before marching off to fight. She also recalls seeing "a strange beige grey balloon flying over the garden", now realising it was a German Zeppelin.
Horse-drawn fire engines in Westbury village and the Foden steam lorries also pepper Netta's memories, along with the Rosary tea gardens near the bottom of Henbury Hill and the time when the telephone was installed in her family home – with the number, simply, Westbury six.
She went to Northumberland House School, where one of her juniors became famous as the actress Deborah Kerr. She trained as a dietician and worked in the Royal Hospital, Gloucester.
In November 1937, she married Donald, a dark and handsome engineer in the Merchant Navy. With Donald's tanker docked in Liverpool and only three days' leave, Netta and her mother had just 48 hours to arrange the wedding.
They married in Westbury Parish Church between two Sunday morning services and the honeymoon was a night in the Atlantic Hotel in Weston-super-Mare.
September 1939 saw the outbreak of a second war and, in November, the arrival of daughter Hilary. Brave Netta was a neighbourhood fire warden and remembers bombing raids as well as a bomb on Park Street.
The couple loved travelling and with Donald Chief Engineer on the Eagle Oil and Shipping Company oil tanker, Netta was allowed on trips to South America and the Caribbean.
Enjoying interests such as cooking and sewing, Netta was one of the early members of the Hallen and Henbury Women's Institute.
She also worked for the Conservative Park in Bristol and met with the Queen Mother as part of her role on the Church Army Housing Committee.
She became a grandmother to Mandi in 1968 and a great-grandmother to Charlotte in 1991. Looking back on her life she said one of her best memories was a trip on Concorde from Filton over the Bay of Biscay and back.
She said: "I think being interested in everything and keeping busy has got me where I am today.
"My mother was like that. I've had an eventful life and enjoy sitting back and remembering everything I've been fortunate enough to do."
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