Martha Longhurst

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Martha Longhurst, at right, with her friends Minnie Caldwell and Ena Sharples.

Martha Longhurst played by Lynne Carol was a character in the British soap opera Coronation Street. She was known for having a glass of milk-stout in the Rover's Return snug with her friends Ena Sharples and Minnie Caldwell.

Characterised by her horn-rimmed spectacles and sharp tongue, Martha was the first major character in "The Street" to be killed off. She died of a heart attack in the Rovers in 1964, the storyline being that she was about to go on holiday to Spain. During a sing-song at the "Rovers", she collapsed and died at a secluded table. Publican Jack Walker had assumed she had drunk herself to sleep, but quickly realised that she was dead.

Little is known of Martha's past, but we know that she was born in 1896 to Mary and Jack Hartley, and grew up to marry Percy Longhurst (on May 18, 1919), and have a daughter, Lily and a son, Harold, by him. She had one grandchild named Sandra.