SHE has danced since she was a toddler.
And today, as she celebrates her 90th birthday, Margery Armitage is still dancing.
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So much so that she is running dancing lessons for members of the Owls social group in Huddersfield – and taking part in a concert troupe, dancing in old people’s homes.
Mrs Armitage is just one of three “nifty” 90-year-olds who are celebrating.
Identical twins Nancy England and Alice Bramhall still run their own homes in Holmfirth.
Mrs Armitage, of Netherton, celebrated her birthday with a surprise party at the Tristan Dance Studio in Lockwood. She is a widow with five children, 14 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
Amazingly, she suffered a broken leg when she was 80 and was told her dancing days were over. But she battled back and still enjoys dancing almost every day.
“I have danced since I could walk. I went to dance classes at the old Lockwood Mechanics and ended up teaching many of the classes.
“Since I was 60 I have taught dance lessons to the Owls and they love the ballet and tap sessions.
“I also do concerts in old folks’ homes with a group and we do tap, the Charleston and belly-dancing.
“I’ll never give up. I want to be dancing 10 years from now when I get that telegram from the Queen.”
Nancy and Alice were born on March 8, 1923 at their home in Holmfirth.
They grew up ‘like peas in a pod’ and dressed the same until they were 14 when they started working in the mills. Nancy, who is the eldest by 15 minutes, said: “We are close but we always said when we started work that we would have our independence.
“We have both lived in Holmfirth all our lives.
“We worked at Watkinson’s Mill as woollen menders from 14 and when the war came we went together to St Neots, Cambridge and spent two years in the Land Army.”
On their return Alice married husband Ernest in 1947 at Holmfirth Methodist Church and Nancy was her bridesmaid.
A year later Nancy married Douglas, an engineer, in the same church.
Nancy recalled: “When we came home from the Land Army we both continued courting our partners and later married them.
“We were the first to be allowed to stay working at the mill after the age of 24.
“Alice had a baby and came back part-time and I worked there until the mill closed in the late 1970s.”
The pair both shared interests of needle work, choral singing and playing the piano over the years.
Both woman, who are widowed, still live in their own homes in Underbank, Holmfirth.
They will celebrate their big day with each other and family and friends tomorrow.
