Sprightly centenarian Emma Redfearn has plenty of reasons to celebrate.
She became well-known in her village for being the woman who helped to secure the first bus service for West Ardsley in 1932.
And now she has celebrated her 100th birthday surrounded by friends and family.
Emma was forced to walk more than three miles from her home in West Ardsley to Alverthorpe every day after she lost her job in Birstall in 1932.
She became so fed up with her long walks before and after her 11 hour shifts that she decided to do something about it.
The campaigner walked into Dewsbury Bus Depot and asked them for a bus service but she was told to collect 35 signatures to prove that there was a demand.
Emma did just that and the following week a green Wakefield to Batley bus was set up, which still runs today.
And the secret of her successful long life all boils down to “home cooked meals and having to work hard”.
She said: “I have had my ups and downs but got over it.
“I like to keep going and don’t like to sit in a chair doing nowt.”
Emma was the oldest of five children and went to Hill Top Infants and Westertone School before leaving at 14 to work as a weaver.
She met her husband Albert when she was 18 as they walked back from St Mary’s Church one Sunday.
The couple did not marry until Emma was 25 and her parents still expected her to be home by 9pm before she was married.
Albert sadly died in 1995, aged 74, and Emma, who has lived on her own since, was determined she would match the age of the Queen Mother.
She added: “You just have to keep going and you have to try even if you are getting old.”
Emma celebrated her birthday with a special party at the Hare and Hounds on Batley Road.
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