WOE betide us Northerners. According to official reports people in the north are 20 per cent more likely to die prematurely than people in the south.

I’ve often wondered precisely where the south ends and the north begins.

Life expectancy nowadays in Britain is 83 years for a female and 79 years for a male so I wonder how the premature death statistics affect local life expectancy?

What is interesting to note however is that Britain’s longest lifespan was that of Charlotte Hughes of Marske by the Sea who died in 1993 in her 116th year. More recently Florrie Baldwin of Pudsey, who died in her 115th year, was the oldest person in Europe at the time of her death.

Currently the oldest living British person is Ethel Lang of Barnsley who is in her 114th year. And the second oldest person is Dorothy Peel of Bridlington in her 112th year.

I have also read two different reports from different sources over a decade apart that state that Leyburn has the longest life expectancy of any town in Britain.

Can anyone explain then why our longest lifespan records are all held by northerners, more interestingly those from Yorkshire?

Dale Edwards, Newborough Street, Bootham, York.