90-year-old great grandmother lives in same house for 82 years

Emma May Haines, who is known as May, was just eight years of age when she moved into the property in Great Bridge on July 3 1931.

At the time there was no electricity in the property, no radio and the family kept themselves entertained by playing games such as snakes and ladders and dominoes, while reading was also a popular pastime.

Times have certainly changed since then, but eight decades later May is still enjoying life in the Hope Road property.

And she admits: "There is no place like home, I love my home."

As a young girl the property was a lot different to now, as May explained. "We didn't have any electricity it was only gas.

"We had great big iron ranges in the front room and we had to buy a little stove that we bought to go in the kitchen.

"It was different in those days, we used to have to go and fetch the coal on a Saturday morning from Haywards Wharf by Horseley Road Clinic.

"We used to drag a little barrel or trolley and fetch it and if we used to do that our parents used to give us tuppence to go to the pictures."

The household did not own a wireless until May, who worked at A H Adams fruit shop in Great Bridge for 32 years, was aged 14, while a television did not arrive until she was in her early 30s.

Instead she spent her childhood playing outside with friends. "There was no television in the early days," she said.

"We hadn't even got a radio. It was nice to go out and play when we were kids, it was safe, you could play in the street, we were never in the house."

May moved into what was then a new-build home with her grandmother and grandfather Ruth and Joseph Morris, her mother Emma Bradley and brother Thomas.

Her father George passed away when he was just 39 from pneumonia.

She still has the documents from the council from that date, asking her grandfather for a 10 shilling deposit for a key to the house. They were told if they missed their appointment, the mid-terrace home would be given to the next family in line.

And she can clearly remember the day she moved in, because she went into the wrong house.

"The houses were all practically empty, and I had got the number wrong," added May who has five grand daughters, Donna, Vicky, Kerry, Suzanne and Laura and 12 great grandchildren aged between two and 20.

"There was someone inside cleaning it to get it ready to move in."

Years later her husband Stanley, a factory worker, moved in with the family when she married, aged 20, in 1943, and then a baby also arrived in the house when her daughter Carol was born two years later. Carol passed away aged 60 seven years ago, also from pneumonia.

She lived at the address until she married at 21.

May and Stanley then lived a happy life together in the house until his death around 10 years ago, and she continues to live in the home, still a Sandwell Council tenant.

May said: "When we moved in it was just a bare house, but it was a nice house in a nice location.

"We've been happy since we've been here. We've had a very happy family and a very happy life.

"I've got decent neighbours, and I never considered moving or applied for anything else. There's no-one on this estate left from when they were first built, just me.

"There's memories that I've got here – we've had some bad times and hard times when we were younger, but families work together.

"I've had a happy life here, and hope to end my time here."

And she said although a lot has changed over the years one thing has remained constant – her good neighbours.

"When I was first here we were all poor, but we all pulled together. We had good neighbours, and I've got good neighbours now."

To celebrate her time in the house, ward councillor Joanne Hadley presented May with a bouquet of flowers.

"We wanted to say thank you for being a good tenant, and the bouquet is the least we can do," she said.

"Long-standing tenants like that, we really need to appreciate them. We are in debt to them."

Have you lived in the same house for longer than 80 years? If so, contact newsdesk on 01902 319410 or email newsdesk@expressandstar.co.uk