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Gifford moved into the property when she was two and later raised her children there.
March 21, 2023
A woman celebrated her 104th birthday last Tuesday (3/21) by putting up for sale the house in which she has lived for more than a century.
In the 102 years that Nancy “Joan” Gifford has lived in the threebedroom townhouse in Somerset, England, the world has witnessed World War II, the invention of television and the moon landings.
She’s asking for £169,950 a ‘fortune’ compared to the £200 her parents paid for the property over a hundred years ago.
Despite the passage of time, much of the property remains the same.
Nancy’s 79yearold son John said it was “amazing” growing up on the property, which was built in 1882.
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Bert and Nancy Gifford raised their two children in the home after marrying in 1939
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Gifford has lived on the Victorian estate since 1921
“Before, most kids our age knew everyone and the door was unlocked,” he added.
“We were all poor, but all were happy.”
When Nancy moved in at the age of two, the property’s kitchen, bathroom, and laundry room were roofless and exposed, while a brass bathtub hung on an exterior wall.
This area was eventually rethought and a new kitchen was installed alongside an extension to the family bathroom, but much of the property remains the same save for a coat of paint in the early 2000’s.
Nancy attended Convent School, Glastonbury, where she met her future husband, Bert, while out walking with friends in the mid1930s.
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Bert and Nancy Gifford and their daughter Mary in the garden of their home, The Mead, in the 1950s
The couple married in 1939 at the outbreak of World War II and had two children, Mary and John, who still live in the area with his wife Sue.
After the war, her husband worked with Nancy in a local shoe factory for 42 years.
The illness forced the elderly woman to move into a care home in Glastonbury, said Holland and Odam, a real estate agent responsible for the sale.
Jack Bartram, manager of a branch of the estate, said: “This house must bring back so many fond memories for Mrs Gifford and her family. Now, after more than a century, it is time for another family to start their own.”