I dropped my car off for a service this morning & walked into town to give blood. I arrived with far to much time to spare so I detoured via the grounds of St Margaret's church.

One of the first gravestones I saw was that of three sisters, Sarah (aged 74), Elizabeth (aged 86) and Ann (aged 85). Their ages instantly stood out to me. Two of them are above the current average life expectancy of a woman in the UK. Their ages are therefore quite remarkable when you consider that they died in 1843, 1844 and 1845 respectively.

It was only after I'd spent a minute or two looking at the stone that I noticed that Elizabeth's date of death was 23rd March, 168 years ago.