ONE of Aberaeron’s best known sons has celebrated his 100th birthday.

Eddie Parry’s family owned the Aberaeron Woollen Mill and when he left school he went to college in London to study tailoring with a view to expanding the business into making garments as well as the cloth.

He was always a keen football fan and when in London he became a regular at Chelsea’s home games and still follows them enthusiastically on TV, and most other sports too.

When he finished his time in London he came home to join his father and brother Hubert in the family business.

Eddie married Joan and they had two children, Evelyn and Jean, two granddaughters, Rhian and Nia, and two great-grandchildren, Lydia and Eliott.

As the fortunes of the woollen industry in general went into decline, the brothers sold the old mill and each opened shops in the town.

Eddie opened a very popular sweet shop and became known to generations of children as Mr Parry the sweets.

Many of those children beat a path to his door to wish him a happy birthday, the bell didn’t stop ringing with a stream of visitors all day.

Eddie still has a walk most days to the petrol station up the hill for his daily papers.