Peggy Hovell is still driving at the age of 100

In 85 years of driving, self-taught Peggy – born Margaret Dowsing – has never had an accident. So when her insurance company tried to charge her £700 recently, she set out to show them quite how safe she is on the roads.

“I love driving and much prefer it to walking,” Mrs Hovell said.

“I’m perfectly confident at it and when my insurance soared I was furious.

“I decided to take a test myself so I got an examiner to come out. I left the car in the garage so he could see I could reverse without knocking into anything.”

The Glenmoor Road resident added: “I deliberately chose the parts of Ferndown and West Parley with most traffic, and he said he had perfect confidence in me the whole time.

“I’ve got the letter to prove it, where he says ‘Mrs Hovell drives as well as a good driver 30-40 years younger than her.’

“They knocked £200 off my insurance, so that was worthwhile.”

Mrs Hovell, who grew up in Buckinghamshire, celebrated reaching a century at Brendoncare Penny’s Friendship Club in Ferndown.

The mum-of-one now avoids motorways and driving at night.

“I’m happy if I know the way, or a passenger does,” she said.

“But if I’m not sure I get the bus – I do get it free after all!

“I won a competition driving blind once. It wasn’t on the M1 but in a field. We had to drive towards a target. Everyone else was going so slowly, but I like speed, so I got there first.”

A former secretary to the Liberal peer Viscount Samuel and Air Raid Precautions worker, she’s won golf, swimming, diving and piano prizes.

Aged 92, she cycled from Boscombe to Bournemouth piers and back for the British Heart Foundation, and until three years ago was determined to do a parachute jump for Action on Hearing Loss.

“I booked up three times, and got a different illness each time,” she told the Daily Echo.

“That was the biggest disappointment of my life.”

By asking for donations to the charity instead of presents, she has raised more than £800.