Evelyn Plowright

1905 -

Our oldest resident is Evelyn Plowright who celebrated her 105th birthday in the summer of 2010. The event was marked with a champagne birthday party and cake at the Digby Court retirement home in Christopher's Lane where she is now resident, while an organist entertained.

Evelyn was born at Nottingham on 23rd July 1905 only four years after the death of Queen Victoria and four years before old age pensions were introduced in Britain and she has since lived through two world wars, the reigns of four monarchs and 31 prime ministers.

Her father, John Perkins, was a conductor on the city's trams and her mother, Helen, worked in domestic service as a maid at Wortley Hall, the stately home near Sheffield in Yorkshire, and sometimes took her daughter to work with her. "She would hide me in a cupboard", said Evelyn, "although I cried out several times and was discovered."

She met her future husband, John Plowright, while standing at a bus stop in Nottingham during the 1920s and soon afterwards they left to live in Spalding and then moved to Bourne. She is now widowed but has a son, David, living at Swinstead.

"The secret of my long life", she said, "is to enjoy yourself every day, dance a lot and don't take a lot of pills."

WRITTEN AUGUST 2010

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