A GREAT-GRANDMOTHER was given a unique 80th birthday treat with a meal in the house where she grew up.

Rosemary Tulloch’s father Frank Morris ran a greengrocer’s store in North Parade, Oxford, during the Second World War, with the family living in the upstairs flat.

Mrs Tulloch lived there from the age of four to 23, going to nearby St Faith’s School before going on to work as a secretary and children’s columnist for the Oxford Mail’s sister paper The Oxford Times.

But she had not returned to her childhood home – now the Jee Saheb restaurant – for over half a century.

On Sunday, her family treated her to a trip down memory lane at a meal in the restaurant.

Mrs Tulloch, who turns 80 today, said: “Going back after all this time was fascinating.

“The shop has changed enormously, but the restaurant manager told me that my old bedroom above the shop is still there and still used by his staff.

“The basement, where we used to go during the air raids, has been converted beautifully into a party room.

“I have a very distinctive memory of being there and watching the planes go overhead the night Coventry was bombed.”

The grandmother-of-nine added: “My mother and father both worked in the shop, and quite often I used to help out with deliveries for them for regular customers who had orders.”

She added: “It was a nice and very integrated community, with shops of all kinds down the road.

“The ownership and character of the shops on the street has changed, but the pub next door is still a pub.”

Mrs Tulloch, who now lives in London, moved away when she married her late husband Bruce, who was studying in the city after the Second World War.

She said: “He was waiting at a bus stop in Oxford and took a bet from a friend that he would speak to the first girl he saw on the bus.

“That was me, I was on my way to the city centre on a bus from Headington.”