AN extra-special party was held in Minehead on Monday (July 1) for Muriel Marrison to celebrate her 103rd birthday.

Muriel, of Blenheim Lodge retirement home, North Road, was born a stone’s throw away in the upstairs bedroom of 41 Quay Street, on the road to the town’s harbour.

She was 12 years old before she had her first birthday cake.

Muriel Marrison with her 103rd birthday cake.
Muriel Marrison with her 103rd birthday cake. ( )

Muriel said: “Back in those days Quay Street was like living in one big family.

“You never sent out invitations to anything because everybody just came.”

The harbour slipway and the sand below was the playground where Muriel and her friends would spend their days.

Muriel’s grandfather, William Henry Martin was harbourmaster and also the first coxswain of the town’s lifeboat and his photograph can still be seen in the lifeboat museum.

Muriel Marrison's grandfather William Henry Martin was Minehead Lifeboat's first coxswain.
Muriel Marrison's grandfather William Henry Martin was Minehead Lifeboat's first coxswain. ( )

William’s brother Richard Martin was in charge of the Hobby Horse.

There was only one Hobby Horse in those days and it lived in Richard’s house, 53 Quay Street.

There was, however, a smaller Hobby Horse, possibly made by Richard for the children to play with.

Muriel went to school in the former community education centre in Holloway Street, Minehead, which was an infant school in those days.

The next school up was just across the street where she stayed until leaving aged 14 years when she went to work for a Mrs Maunders, whose tailoring and dressmaking business was run from her home in Holloway Street.

The only wedding photograph possessed by Muriel Marrison because the photographer did not turn up.
The only wedding photograph possessed by Muriel Marrison because the photographer did not turn up. ( )

Muriel made cloaks for the local choir among many other items, and earned half a crown a week, or two shillings and sixpence in old money, equivalent to 12.5p in today’s currency.

She joined the Navy Army And Airforce Institute (NAAFI) in the early 1940s before marrying.

On her wedding day, June 4, 1943, it was pouring with rain and the photographer failed to arrive.

A photograph by a friend taken of Muriel and husband Eric standing in the doorway of her Quay Street home was the only one the couple had.

Muriel Marrison (right) with a hobby horse made by her great-uncle Richard Martin.
Muriel Marrison (right) with a hobby horse made by her great-uncle Richard Martin. ( )

Eric fought in the Burma campaign during the Second World War and returned from India afterwards on the Cunard White Star RMS Mauretania, which for 20 years once held the record for the fastest westbound crossing of the Atlantic Ocean.

He has a bench dedicated to him in Blenheim Gardens, just across the road from Muriel’s retirement apartment.

Muriel and Eric at one time lived in Egypt and also Pulau Brani, an island off Singapore, and she laughs when she tells people her bungalow in Pulau Brani ‘used to be a brothel’.

Minehead's Muriel Marrison on the occasion of her 103rd birthday.
Minehead's Muriel Marrison on the occasion of her 103rd birthday. ( )

Muriel said families living in Quay Street houses in Minehead were always prepared for flooding and would use clay to seal the boards placed across their doorways.

The toilets were outside and Muriel remembers the pipes would fill with sea water during storms and would empty again when the tide receded.

Residents would walk into town to The Priory - now Westcott’s flower shop - to pay their rent, and the first catch of fish brought into harbour always had to go to Dunster Castle.