Margaret Blackwell moved to the island from Henley-on-Thames with her husband in 1969, and opened two local jewellery shops in Tudor House called Blackwell Jewellers. The shops became a treasured fixture on the High Street, trading for over 50 years.
‘We had jewellery shops in London,’ she said.
‘And my husband saw an advert in the paper for a shop for sale in Guernsey. He and my son came over to check it and then I came over the next week. I stayed at the Royal Hotel and thought “this is nice”. And we’ve been here ever since.
‘I used to have asthma, but that disappeared when we moved. I’ve got so many happy memories. Life on the island has been lovely, I wouldn’t have changed a thing. We’ve done so many things.’
Mrs Blackwell said she had noticed the vibrancy of the high street slowly dim over the years.
‘You walk around Town and there’s empty shops – there never was,’ she said.
‘We used to close at 10 o’clock at night three times a week, and we’d walk down to the harbour and watch the midnight boat come in. I remember we’d count the tourists coming off to see how much money we were going to make that week.’
Her daughter, Johanne Taylor, took over the running of one of the shops – Number 40 – when her brother Andrew Blackwell and his wife, Lesley, retired in 2019.
It now sells clothes, shoes and handbags.
‘It’s amazing to see my mum still so bright and spritely,’ she said.
‘Just look at her. She’s so naughty – a real family person.’
The birthday girl was enjoying her second of three parties celebrating her landmark birthday, with the third set for her big day today.
She was surrounded by 57 friends and family members, who came from across the world, some as far as Africa, to celebrate the impressive milestone of their beloved diamond at Les Roquettes Hotel.