A PENSIONER believed to be East Lancashire's oldest man is celebrating yet another birthday.

Netherwood 'Ned' Hughes turns a staggering 108 today and shows no signs of slowing down yet.

He enjoys smoking a pipe with a glass of whisky in the evening, but still does his best to keep fit.

He said: "I go out and walk about the town if it's fine and I even played football a few years ago."

Ned was born to optician father, John, and Scottish mother, Robina, in Lord Street, Great Harwood, on June 12, 1900.

And even though he clearly recalls major national and global events, his earliest memory is firmly rooted in East Lancashire.

He said: "I was very young when they were building the Baptist church in Great Harwood and my first memory is the noise of the builders' trowels working on it.

"I knew a chap who worked on the Titanic in Liverpool, but it left without him on it."

While working as a driver, delivering cotton in 1917, Ned was one of the youngest drivers of a heavy goods vehicle and one of the first people to be fined for breaking the speed limit of 15mph.

In 1918, he was called up to serve in the First World War along with all the other drivers in England.

Following the war, he returned to England where he worked as a bus driver and set up business as a green grocer in Wallasey before returning to Great Harwood to work for Bristol Aeroplane Company, which later became British Aerospace.

Ned, who was the middle child of seven brothers and sisters, married twice in his life, but is now a widower.

The affable pensioner has lived at Woodlands Home for the Elderly, Warwick Avenue, Clayton-le-Moors, since 2003.

Officer on duty, Gina Rushton, who has know him for the past five years, said he was a popular figure in the home.

She said: "He's a funny character and certainly one for the ladies.

"All the female staff have had offers from him at some point.

"He likes to smoke his pipe in his room at night even though he shouldn't and he's always telling me stories about his life.

"He was quite ill about six weeks ago and we thought that might be it but he bounced back and now he's fine.

"He's definitely in great shape."

Ned, who never had any children, added: "I've got about five cards from the Queen, but this year's hasn't arrived yet.

"It'll probably come tomorrow."