Home sweet home for pensioner who has lived in same house for 96 YEARS
By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 7:51 PM on 17th March 2010
Just ten days before Britain declared war on Germany in 1914, Muriel Noyce’s family – including her ten siblings - moved into their new home.
Ninety-six years later and the 100-year-old is still living at the two-bedroom terrace property – which has gone up in value from £500 to £225,000.
Miss Noyce, known as ‘Moo’ to her friends, has seen the end of two world wars as well as vast changes to society, all from the comfort of her modest home in Romsey, Hampshire.
And she can recall the times when ‘you never had to lock your door’ and ‘people were much more polite to you’.
Her father, William, who worked at the city docks, started renting the house for just ten shillings, when she was four years old.
The youngest of 11 children, Miss Noyce, who was born in Southampton, admits it was a bit of a squeeze when it came to going to sleep.
She said: ‘Mum and dad had the back bedroom and I used to sleep in their room with four of my siblings - we slept top to toe on a double bed.
‘In the other bedroom another six of my siblings slept top to toe.’
However, the former typist and cinema usher, who now lives with her three cats, is the only family member left as her last sister, Elvira, passed away five years ago.
She said: ‘I never left home and married because I had to look after my parents.
‘And when I finally had the opportunity to leave I didn't meet “Mr Right” so I decided to stay.’
Over the years Miss Noyce has gradually updated her home.
In 1914, the home was lit with paraffin oil lamps and candles. Heat was generated from paraffin heaters and a coal range, which was used to cook.
The family had an outdoor toilet, built over a stream in the garden, and bathed in a tin tub.
In 1948 electricity was installed for £50 and in the late 1950s the family rented a television which just had three channels. In 1960 a bathroom was installed in the house.
Miss Noyce recalls earning £1 a week at her first job as a typist, aged 18 - the equivalent today of around £45.
In her spare time Miss Noyce went dancing at the local halls and, during the war, occasionally attracted the advances of soldiers.
However, one night an American officer incurred Miss Noyce's wrath after becoming a little too frisky while walking her home.
She was so incensed by his advances she knocked him out with a milk churn. 8)
Over the years Miss Noyce has seen many changes to her community.
Her street, once home to a butcher, baker, a coal yard and even a shop that treated corns, is now full of houses.
But it's not just the landscape that has changed.
Miss Noyce said: ‘In the old days life was hard but much safer and you had a better time.
‘You never had to lock your doors and people were much more polite to you.
‘More people went to church and were willing to give you the time of day.
‘Youngsters also respected their elders but nowadays they are quite disgusting.
‘They walk around smoking and drinking to all hours - even in the streets.
‘You can hear them swearing in public places and a lot of girls get pregnant before they are married.’
Social historian Professor Carl Chinn, of the University of Birmingham, said Miss Noyce living in the same home for 96 years was a ‘tremendous achievement’.
‘It just goes to show how important the sense of place and their roots are for some people,’ he added.
‘We are more prone to move these days but roots and kinship networks are still important, particularly to working class people like myself.
‘There are definitely more opportunities to move these days and work tends to take people further afield.’
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