ENGLAND'S OLDEST MARRIED COUPLE.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXII, Issue 8795, 24 April 1907, Page 1

ENGLAND'S OLDEST MARRIED COUPLE.

The oldest married couple in England are Mr and Mrs Christopher Lawrence, who have lived at Huclmall Torkard, the Nottinghamshire town which has so inany associations with tlio poet Byron. Mr and Mrs Lawrence are aged 92 and 91 respectively, and on May Day next it will bo 72 years since they, as boy and girl, took each other for better or for worse in "the pretty village church of Epperstonc. They live at the home of their widowed daughter, who herself is in her 70th year.

The old lady was quite willing to gossip with the Morning Leader correspondent, and her wrinkled face puckered into a smile when she was asked for the secret of a long life.

I think it is because we have lived in the country and worked on the land all our lives. My husband and I had no schooling, except what we learned at the Sunday school, and we went to work when we were 8 years of age. I remember that I worked in the fields then, scaring birds, pulling up weeds, and such like. "We have stuck together like leeches since we have been married, and sometimes we have found it hard work to live. I have had a life of hard work and I have brought my children up to work.'' After she was married, Mrs Lawrence said, she jworked in the field lOJiours'a day,'and then had to walk two miles to her home. She had vivid recollections of the "good old times" when flour was 4s a stone, sugar 14d and 15d per [and meat an unheard of price. Their staple diet then was potatoes and salt, with two or three herrings as a treat on Sundays for the whole family—and there were 10 of them! "Thank God," said the old dame, "we have always kept ourselves respectable, and we have not had to go into the house. Sometimes I wish the end would come, for it is very dull sitting all day and unable to do anything.'' The venerable couple are in receipt of parish relief, but it is not much for them to live upon, and they have no margin for any t little comforts. Mr Bird, a resident of Hankin street, where they live, is organising a presentation for thera on the 72nd anniversary of their wedding and it will probably take the form of money.