Some commentators have been distinctly unimpressed at news of 56-year- old mothers and the revelation last month that the average age of

Some commentators have been distinctly unimpressed at news of 56-year- old mothers, and the revelation last month that the average age of first- time mothers in the UK has for the first time risen above 30. But to a scientist they could hold the key to extending the potential maximum lifespan of homo sapiens well beyond its present 120-odd years. It is childish and rather frightening behaviour from an adult."We have never interfered with your mother's day-care ambulance coming on to the terrace. We first of all asked you if you could persuade them not to turn the ambulance on the terrace. This was after three of our terrace pots had been broken by them."It is a battle which would doubtless have distressed Miss Martineau too, who was steeped in good works, devoted to the temperance movement and was described by Dickens as "grimly bent on the enlightenment of mankind". In her former home, enlightenment seems never more unlikely..

I had no wish to fall out with a neighbour, but I intend to live quietly and in peace."A week later she fumed: "I should also appreciate that you didn't make the terrible faces that you made at me in the village last week. She will not talk of her long-running battle with Mr Smith but she made her feelings clear when she wrote to him last month: "I am sorry for you, but I am not prepared to put up with your pathetic conduct I seek a change of heart from you. As I turned away I felt Ms Colquhoun's gin and tonic come splashing down over my head."Unfortunately, I over-reacted to all this trouble."I bought a bag of marbles and sent them to her with a covering note saying `These are to replace the ones you've lost.'"The marbles came back through the door."Ms Colquhoun, 68, once a Hackney Borough councillor and former official of Gingerbread, the single parents' support group, moved with Mrs Todd and their "extended family" of children to Ambleside for peace and quiet. Then, he says, their home help was ordered to walk up the drive "even though my solicitor confirms that we have an absolute right to use vehicles in the drive".Mr Smith, who demonstrates his devotion to model railways by exhibiting them as well as allowing children to ride them, has discovered that Ms Colquhoun and her partner do not share his enthusiasm."We had just unloaded one railway engine Maureen and Babs were taking a drink on the terrace. I've been a bus driver and I know good driving, but they've been harassed by this former Labour MP."Mr Smith alleges that his next-door neighbours also complained that the district nurse's car had crossed over their boundary line and blocked it in. The larger part, North Knoll, is the home of steam engine builder John Smith, 64, and his 88-year-old mother Annie.Mr Smith is a former science and music teacher who resigned 13 years ago to train as a bus driver "in complete exasperation and disgust at the declining behaviour of British schoolchildren, especially girls".

He looks after his mother full-time.The feuding, according to Mr Smith, has been over complaints by Ms Colquhoun about the ambulances which collect his mother for hospital visits and use part of the former MP's drive to turn their vehicles round."My mother has dementia It's a tragic case The ambulancemen call for her once a week You can imagine how carefully they drive. For the town has been riveted by a bitter feud involving the Labour Party's first openly lesbian MP, her lover and their next-door neighbour over a house that is the former home of Miss Martineau herself. Drinks have been thrown and insults traded by the trio, who each complain bitterly of the other side's behaviour. The house, The Knoll, in Rydal Road, Ambleside, was built by Miss Martineau in 1845 and loved by William Wordsworth and Charlotte Bronte It has since been divided into two. South Knoll is the home of Maureen Colquhoun, Labour MP for Northampton North from 1974 to 1979 and her partner, Barbara Todd, who is writing a new biography of Harriet Martineau. to keep out of the gossip and the quarrels which prevail in such places", there was a touch of prophecy about her words. When Harriet Martineau, anti-slavery campaigner, early feminist and friend of Charles Dickens, warned her readers that living in small places like her lakeland home of Ambleside made it "nearly impossible ...