A 111-year-old has been told to dig out her birth certificate in a bid to prove she is Britain's oldest living person.

Nellie Bradley, who for the past 16 years has lived at the Gables nursing home in Skipton Road, Silsden, was born during the reign of Queen Victoria in 1889.

Friends and family have now started the hunt for the documentation needed for the Guinness Book of Records to declare her as the oldest living person in the UK.

Nursing home matron Christine Mallinson received a call from a researcher at the Guinness Book of Records who is keen to verify Mrs Bradley's age.

Mrs Mallinson said: "I don't know who it was who contacted them but they need a birth certificate, a wedding certificate and some other form of proof of age."

She plans to write to Mrs Bradley's eldest son John to see if he can track down the paperwork.

Mrs Bradley was born in Frizinghall, Bradford, where she grew up with her two brothers and two sisters on the family farm.

In 1914 Mrs Bradley married childhood friend James while he was serving as a vet with the artillery regiment in the First World War.

The couple, who moved to Shipley in the 1920s where Mr Bradley set up his own veterinary practice, had four children - John, Mary, James and Ralph - all of who are themselves over 75.

Mr Bradley died aged 81 in 1966 and Mrs Bradley continued to live alone near Ilkley until she was 95 before moving into the Gables in Silsden.

A spokesman from the Guinness Book of Records said: "She's potentially the oldest woman in the UK. There are four other women who are around 108, including one from Guiseley, but Nellie is in line to be declared the oldest."

While Mrs Bradley is still a way off the world record - a 120-year-old South African woman - she has only until her birthday in September to match the world's oldest living man who is 112.

The oldest person ever to have lived was Frenchwoman Jeanne Louise Calment who died aged 122 years and 164 days in 1997.

Mrs Bradley's youngest son Ralph, 74, said he was certain there would be no trouble producing the necessary documents. He added his mother's side of the family had a history of longevity.

"All my mother's brothers and sisters reached well into their nineties - none made 100 but they were pretty old nevertheless," he said.