STRANGE BUT TRUE

Tying the knot at eighty

Marriage among our senior citizens is now commonplace. No one bats an eyelid when a couple of octogenarians decide to tie the knot but it was not always so and it caused quite a stir when James Leverland and Harriet West decided to wed in 1876.

James, aged 80, of Northorpe, and Harriet, aged 74, of Bourne, chose the Free Methodist Chapel at Thurlby, for the ceremony on Friday 24th March. Both had been married twice before and as a result of their advancing ages the wedding excited considerable interest in the village because the united age of the bride and bridegroom was 154 years.

“The eager curiosity among the villagers caused great excitement and led very many persons to assemble in and around the chapel to witness the interesting ceremony", reported a local newspaper. "Possibly this curiosity was increased by the well-known fact that the venerable bridegroom was so deaf as to render it very probable some little difficulty would be experienced in getting through the ceremony.

"All difficulties being surmounted, and the knot duly tied, the happy pair had to face the numerous crowd of spectators. Flowers were strewed before them and although the gay Lothario is an octogenarian, we may venture to hope that a few more flowers may yet bedeck his pathway.

"Although both bride and bridegroom had twice before passed through the same ordeal at the hymeneal altar, we venture to assume that never before did they meet with such an ovation, although they scarcely seemed to appreciate it or understand the customs of this degenerate age, for no sooner did they reach the chapel doors, and rice began to pour upon them in showers from all directions, than the faithful and trusty stick upon which our venerable friend had so long and so often leaned, instantly sprang to the rescue, and was uplifted in a menacing attitude, while expressions indicating his opinion that they were being insulted escaped from his lips.

"However, the party were immediately saluted by a boisterous cheer from the assembled rustics, and a clear passage having been affected for them, they passed through the crowd and took refuge in the house of a friend hard by. Whilst the burden of eighty long winters has borne down the once ‘gigantic form of man’, and the bended form assumes the bow-like shape, ever and anon looking down towards mother earth, the buxom bride, cheered by the light and heat and sunshine of more than seventy summers, is still erect and sprightly."

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