LANDMARK wedding anniversaries and birthdays will be marked at a 'Celebration of Celebrations' in Cartmel.

This year sees members of Cartmel Priory celebrate five 60 and 60+ wedding anniversaries, six Golden wedding anniversaries, one Silver wedding and one 100th birthday.

There are also 10 members of the congregation turning either 90 or 90+ in 2017, including one who travels to church on a segway.

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Frances Jarvis, who has lived in Cartmel for 30 years, said she has been using the unusual transportation method to travel the half mile distance from her home to the Priory for the past decade.

"They're okay actually," Frances, 90, said, when asked how difficult it was learn to use the electric vehicle. "It's not too bad to balance on, I only came off twice in the beginning.

"I find it quite useful because I'm not so energetic these days."

She said it only takes about five minutes to get to the church and whenever she uses the segway she 'raises eyebrows'.

Ron Thompson will be turning 100. He took part in the Normandy landings, was awarded the Legion d’honneur from the French government and still sings in the church choir.

Betty and Gordon Woolley and Gordon and Dorothy Roberts are the two couples celebrating 60+ wedding anniversaries. Maurice and Barbara Howarth, Roland and Shirley Morgan and Bill and Jane Tyson are celebrating their Diamond anniversaries.

Roger and Dorothy Baxter, Peter and Jane Douglas, Barrow and Lesley Gaskarth, Mary and John Iveson, Robert and Thelma Western and Clare and Dai Hunt are all celebrating their Golden anniversaries this year.

Tessa and Steve Pemberton have been together for 40 years this year and Nick and Diana Devenish for 25 years.

In addition to the two 90th birthdays and the hundredth, a further eight will be turning an age above 90. This brings the grand celebratory total to 1696 years.

Dorothy Baxter, chairman of the priory's social committee, said it was just by 'chance' she discovered so many were celebrating this year.

"We have known about the hundredth birthday because it coincides with the Priory's Ice Cream Sunday," she said. "And then it was chance really that we discovered that another friend also had a 50th anniversary and they knew another couple who were celebrating on the same day.

"So we started to ask around and it transpired we had six 50th weddings."

Dorothy added that the Priory was also celebrating its founder, William Marshal, who reissued the Magna Carta 800 years ago in 1217.

She said the day itself will include a special 11am service focusing on celebrations. The Priory will be decorated and after the service there will be a Jacob's Join lunch, cake and bubbles.

"It just shows how community involvement can help keep people lively and working together," Mrs Baxter said.

"We have a good congregation. It comprises a small local congregation. More than half of the congregation are gathered in that we do not live in Cartmel but the kind of traditional manner of doing the services is what the Priory follows and there are a lot of people who value that."

Mrs Baxter said that people travelled from Sedbergh, Grizedale and Ravenstonedale to attend services at the Priory.

"It's a case of trying to join the community," she said, of the celebration. "And the community is not only the church community but the community around and about.

"We are trying to put the church back at the heart of the village."

The Celebration of Celebrations will take place on July 2 at 11am.