Defiant pensioner will not move

A pensioner has refused to sell her 125-year-old family cottage to make way for a multi-million pound development in Bristol.

The £77m project of 459 residential flats is now being built around Jean Taylor's Bedminster home.

Mrs Taylor has resisted all offers from the developers to sell the house where she was born 83 years ago.

She said: "I am determined to stay. I might only live a few more years. Why should I pull everything out now?"

The Victorian house was originally surrounded by 27 other homes, which were later pulled down to make way for a factory.

My memories are all in the same place Jean Taylor

Mrs Taylor bought the house in 1970 for £475 - her family had previously rented it since 1880.

Work was started in January on flats, shops and a housing complex for the elderly which is being built by St Monica's Trust and Bristol City Council, just a few feet away from her garden.

St Monica's director Gerald Lee said Mrs Taylor had been offered a flat in the new development or at a nearby sheltered housing scheme.

She has declined the offer - along with a bid to buy the house at its market value of £200,000.

"It was more for their benefit than mine," she said.

"I am not moving. There's so many things in 83 years that you experience. My memories are all in the same place."