As Last of The Summer Wine finishes, meet the REAL Nora Batty!
MEET the real Nora Batty.
She may have lived the last 37 years sharing her name with one of TV’s most famous battleaxes, but Skelmanthorpe’s Nora always maintained there was one crucial difference:
"I don’t wear wrinkled stockings," she said.
In another coincidence she celebrated her 90th birthday on Sunday – the very day that the final episode of Last Of The Summer Wine was broadcast.
Before getting too carried away with the parallels with the Holmfirth-based sitcom, however, it is worth noting that her working life was quite different.
A world away from the genteel hills and cafes of her namesake, Nora was a civilian worker in West Yorkshire Police’s drugs and firearms units.
Now living in a residential home, she has suffered from Alzheimer’s disease for some time. But her son-in-law, 68-year-old Granville Bull, says she is in otherwise good health.
He said: "She was born Nora Beggs and Batty was the name of her second husband, Frank.
"I think she enjoyed how the name achieved this fame, and she was always quick to point out to anyone who commented that her stockings were definitely not wrinkled.
"She did have a bit of fun with it.
"Whenever she signed a cheque or had to give her name people would say "you’re famous".
"She was on the Electoral Register, and whenever we had to go to the council office or sort out her postal vote they would say ‘oh we know who she is’.
"Her life has been full and happy and she had one daughter, Pamela.
