DOROTHY Wootton's family is larger than many folks' family trees.

Mrs Wootton, of Strensall, York, is the third of eight siblings, but she is the only daughter. "They took one look at me and said, 'no more, we'll stick to boys," she jokes. Her brothers are all still alive, aged between 58 and 73.

Although hailing from York originally, the family moved to Yeadon during the war. Now best known for Leeds-Bradford Airport, it was then home to the Avro aircraft factory where their father found work.

You might expect a super-sized family to live in a large home. Not a bit of it.

"It was very small," Mrs Wootton told the Diary. "We only had a three-bedroom house. Six boys were in the one room, and I always had the baby with me."

But she didn't feel any childhood deprivation. "It was lovely. We've been very close."

Despite being the only girl, she wasn't spoiled. And everyone was expected to muck in with the chores: "It was done on a rota: you had to chop wood, carry coal and shoes to clean. I hated cleaning shoes."

These days she only sees all her brothers together "at weddings and funerals. Mainly funerals now".

They are Tony, who lives in Horsforth, and is 73-years-old; Ken (Belfast, 71); Peter (Rawdon, 66); Paul (Yeadon, 64); David (Spalding, Lincs, 62); Brian (Great Yarmouth, 60); and Chris (Yeadon, 58).

Mrs Wootton is not only blessed with a pack of brothers, but she is one of five generations of her own family. Her mother-in-law is in her 90s; her son Howard is 45; her grandaughter Amy is 19; and her great grandson Thomas is soon to be a year old.

It must be time for her to start writing her Christmas cards. "It's a nightmare to be honest. I start this year for the next."

Mrs Wootton wonders whether her remarkable family "is a record? Or can it be beaten?"

Challengers please get in touch...

BACK with the bins, and we have two reader suggestions to relate.

The first is a recommendation by Claire Jowett, from Bootham Terrace, York. She says a new product will end those bin day blues.

"I was asked to keep a secret a year ago by a friend. He asked me and some others to test his brilliant new invention," she writes. "As it is on sale in the open market I'm sure he won't mind if I share it with you."

The name of the product is Linerglide. "He claimed it would transform our bins making them easier to empty. None of us believed him at first but he was right... I can really cram the rubbish in now.

"I don't worry if I miss a collection, as I sometimes do: compacting with my magical bin widget and recycling as much as I can, our outside bin is rarely, if ever overflowing."

Linerglide - corrugated strips which fit inside your bin, making it much easier to pull out the bag - is the brainchild of Leeds inventor Paul Martin and is available from Lakeland.

The second tip comes from a reader who wants his name kept under wraps. Why not, he suggests, tip food waste down the toilet? That is, after all, what goes down the pan in "another form".

Whether Yorkshire Water will be thrilled to find yesterday's leftover sausage and mash heading to their treatment plants is another matter...

Updated: 10:39 Monday, October 10, 2005