A BATCHLEY woman with a passion for playing the piano celebrated her 100th birthday on Monday.

Phyllis Bellinger, of Cedar Park Road, said a close family life and enjoyment of the great outdoors had also helped her to stay young.

"My parents and I were very close and my father used to take me out on a rowing boat on the River Severn," she said.

Miss Bellinger said her love of the water extended to the seaside, with regular family outings to Brighton and Weston-Super-Mare.

The sprightly centenarian spent her childhood in Worcester, helping run the family piano business.

"We were all musical and loved to play the piano," she said.

"I played all the classical tunes. I loved playing music far more than dancing."

At school, she hated arithmetic but excelled at writing and drawing.

"I wasn't really interested in landscapes but loved to draw faces and I was always experimenting with watercolours."

Miss Bellinger taught at a Sunday school in Worcester before moving with her parents and brother to Redditch with the business.

She said she was particularly close to her brother Francis, who was 13 years older and worked as a dentist.

"We were very good pals and I'm still very close to his son, my nephew Astley," she said.

To celebrate her birthday, Miss Bellinger said she enjoyed nothing more than bread and cheese and a drop of sherry.