GREAT great grandmother Hilda Floyd is today celebrating her 104th birthday.

Mrs Floyd was born in Thorganby in 1911 - a month after King George V was crowned king and when most of the country was suffering a heat wave and drought.

Today she is celebrating her landmark birthday with cake, relatives and friends at the family home in Melbourne where she has lived since 1950.

Her youngest daughter Wendy Fineron said: "She always says it's down to hard work. She has never drunk or smoked in her life. She has a sense of humour about things - which with eight children she would have needed.

"We all find her an inspiration. She always brought us up with the ethos that hard work never killed anybody and she is proof of that."

Mrs Floyd had eight children - Dorothy, Terry, Bill, John, Bernard, Ron, Alan - known as Tut - and Wendy, outliving the four eldest, and has 15 grandchildren, five step-grandchildren, 23 great grandchildren, and seven great great grandchildren.

One of five children, she worked on her family’s smallholding at the age of 14 and remained in agriculture throughout her life with her husband Jack, a farm labourer, whom she married when she was 18.

Mrs Floyd now loves to spend time with her family and enjoys watching sports on television, with a particular interest in cricket and snooker.

She goes to chapel every week and, until fairly recently, played bowls.

"I don't think she can believe she's turning 104," Wendy said.