A 100-year-old man has celebrated his life-long love of Darwen’s Sunnyhurst Wood by donating all his birthday money to improve the beauty spot.

Edwin Coulthurst Raine asked for donations to the Friends of Sunnyhurst Wood rather than personal gifts, and now £700 has been used to replace a plaque commemorating the visit of George V in 1913.

It’s not the first contribution the family has made to the wood – a bench in memory of his twin cousins Margaret Worsley, a pharmacist, and Amelia Davie, a teacher, was installed in 2008. Margaret was 99 and Amelia 100.

Mr Raine, a former printer who has lived in the same house in Darwen since 1936, still regularly walks in the wood with daughter Jean Yates, 70.

Mrs Yates said: “My dad has always lived near the wood and has always enjoyed walking through it, as his father did before him.

“We had three parties for his 100th birthday and he decided he didn’t want any presents, but for friends and family to make a donation to the Friends of Sunnyhurst Wood instead.

The plaque was from his era – it was put up in 1913 and it had been badly damaged, so we thought this would be a nice thing to replace.

“The whole family, from his two daughters, seven grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren, all have a love of the woods and it’s nice to have a permanent reminder there.”

The original 1913 plaque has been moved to the Visitors’ Centre, and the new plaque has been put up alongside a small plaque with Mr Raine’s name.

Dennis Gillibrand, chairman of the Friends of Sunnyhurst Wood, thanked the family for the donation.

He said: “The Friends of Sunnyhurst Wood have a ‘hit-list’ of work that needs to be carried out in the wood and we are very grateful to Mr Raine for donating the money allowing us to replace the plaque.

It is very appropriate as the original plaque was put up in 1913, and Mr Raine was born in 1910.”