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Howard -
You are right, not many people reached 80, and continued to work, but I have found that, a century ago, IF people survived childhood some of them could do so.
My husband had an ancestor named Samuel Hayward, a beadle, who lived in Wye, who lived to be 97 - Samuel died aged 97 in 1851.
The death rate for children was very high due to things like measles, whooping cough, diptheria, etc and lack of general hygiene and antibiotics I guess, particularly in large families. If you were fit when you were 80 (unless living on a private income) you usually had to work, be looked after by your family (if they didn't have to work) or go into the workhouse.
Kathleen