THE May Day meeting of Crediton Townswomen’s Guild was also our 51st birthday and we had a celebration with visitors from the Barnstaple Guild and guests from the days when we had a Federation and who have remained as friends.

Our speaker, Professor Brian Kirby OBE, came to give us a talk entitled “A lighthearted look at longevity”. We were not sure what to expect from this speaker, but he gave us a very interesting talk about expectations of the length of life through history, from caveman times to today.

Life was a very precarious thing back in the Stone Age - 20 to 25 years being the maximum that people survived. Few in those days lived to see 20 but history has a way of putting events in perspective and as mankind progressed so did life expectancy.

In modern times it is quite common for man to live to 100 plus.

Professor Kirby explained that the improvised diet, knowledge of herbal medicine, the fact that as time went by we had a more varied and nutritional diet, all contributed to the life span through history to the present time.

Disease control and awareness of cleanliness and the fact that vaccinations were becoming available, exercise being encouraged and healthy foods had a beneficial effect.

The advent of antibiotics and pain killers over the counter all contributed to the improved lifestyle we all have access to now.

Of course we were warned about the detrimental effects of smoking, alcohol and obesity on the life expectancy of the “general public”, but as a group of (mostly) elderly ladies he was preaching to the converted.

On the whole we really enjoyed his talk.

After our speaker had finished we had our birthday tea, provided by the committee, during which we had a presentation to two members of the Guild.

Pam Durrant and Mary Jack have both completed 25 years as members of the Guild, and were given a certificate, a letter from head office and a badge to commemorate the length of service.

They both also received a bouquet of flowers from the chairman. They had no idea they were to get the presentation on the day so it was a lovely surprise.

We all had a lovely afternoon, not least because it stayed “dry”.

Our next meeting is on Tuesday, June 5 when our speaker will tell us about “Moths and Butterflies” and our competition will be for a hand mirror.

We meet at 2.15pm at Crediton Methodist Church Hall. Visitors are always welcome.

MJ