100-year-old farming trailblazer shares secret to a long life - and it may not be what you'd expect...

It may sound a bit much even for someone half her age, but after a lifetime in farming, it’ll be a piece of cake for Ruth.

In her long and impressive career, she was the first ever female branch chair for the Shropshire National Farmer’s Union (NFU) branch, and was once voted the second-best dairy farmer in the whole country.

“I’m very lucky,” she said, with her telegram from King Charles on a table next to her.

Asked about how she made it to the grand old age of 100, she said: “Hard work. And I’m not married. That’s why I’ve lived so long!”

Ruth was born on May 31, 1925 in Great Hagley, Bucknell, south Shropshire. She is one of five siblings. Her brother Harley died of polio aged 29, but Gerald, 85; Dot, 87; and Barbara, 89 are still going strong.

She didn’t marry or have children, but she has nephews and nieces and plenty of extended family, as well as many friends she had made over the years through various walks of life.

She grew up on her dad’s farm in Walcot, and her family are still running the JRO Griffiths farm today.

A woman of many talents, Ruth is known for making “a mean trifle” according to her nephew Ian, and she also played the organ for churches well into her 90s before the Covid-19 pandemic struck in 2020.

She is also a trained soprano singer and has been a keen baker and a milliner, making wedding hats and fascinators for the great and good including Lady Roberts and Lady Berwick.

Ruth has held many important roles in her life including Shropshire’s NFU chair, Welshpool Cattle Breeding Centre chair and treasurer for churches and charities.

It was in farming where she made her biggest impact, working for decades in Shropshire breeding cows and farming “everything” from ducks, geese, chickens and turkeys.

Asked how she coped in a heavily male-dominated industry, Ruth said: “I always got on well with the farmers. I remember people asking me ‘how do you get on with all these farmers?’ I said ‘fine, I’ve no problems with the farmers - it’s always the wives!’”

Among her achievements in agriculture was her establishment of the Dovecote herd of pedigree Freisian-Holstein cows after going over to Canada to study cattle.

She even had a “cow baby monitor” set up in the 1970s - a CCTV room at her farm where she could keep a watchful eye over cattle who were about to give birth so she could rush out to their aid if needed.

Such was her skill, she was once recognised as the second-best dairy farmer in the whole country, with the late Sir Stephen Roberts, an entrepreneurial Shropshire farmer, instrumental in Ruth finishing second.

Asked if she ever forgave him for not handing her the top prize, she gave a wry smile, with a twinkle in her eye.

Ruth said she was “thrilled” with her card from the king, having once seen him up close and personal with Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother and Princess Diana back in 1986 at Buckingham Palace when she was invited in her capacity as local NFU chair.

She said she plans to celebrate at her party with “a few friends, nephews and nieces, and great nephews and nieces”.

Farmer Kate Mayne, current chair of NFU Shropshire, wished Ruth every happiness from NFU members across the county on her milestone birthday.

“We hope she had a super time with friends and family on her big day,” she said.

“Those of Ruth’s generation have seen huge changes in farming over the decades, in politics, in food production and in the way we treat food and buy our produce - it’s mind-boggling really.

“As the first woman Shropshire NFU branch chair in the county and an advocate for the industry, she was a real trailblazer.

“It is great we are seeing more women holding positions of office across the NFU nationally, since the 1980s when Ruth was in office.

“I hope her legacy carries on and I thank her for it as we look to ensure all voices are represented in farming.

“We all wish her and her family the very best.”