Old Tom Parr

On Saturday night I met up with a few friends for some more farewell drinks and a Thai meal at one of my favourite west London pubs - The Old Parrs Head. It's a great little local boozer run by a nice Irish bloke who has employed a succession of young girls with massive tits to lurk behind the bar. (I guess this is probably true all the pubs I frequent).
Anyhow there are fact sheets floating around the pub which gives a bit of a background to whom Old Parr was and how the pub came to be named after him. One common theme came from the mouths of all who read this fact sheet - "It's all lies". To set things straight it makes such bold statements that he died at the age of 152 years and had 22 children. It's easy to see how you could write it off as nonsense.
I have been doing some investigations of my own and I can now reveal that it's true. Wikipedia even substantiates the claims and highlights how Old Parr is listed as a cultural reference in such classics as Dracula and novel by some chap called Dickens. Poor Old Tom Parr was a living legend and is buried at Westminster Abbey along with countless other medieval heroes. Here is the inscription in his gravestone;

THO: PARR OF YE COUNTY OF SALLOP. BORNE
IN AD: 1483. HE LIVED IN YE REIGNES OF TEN
PRINCES VIZ: K.ED.4. K.ED.5.K.RICH.3.
K.HEN.7.K.HEN.8.K.EDW.6.Q.MA.Q.ELIZ
K.JA. & K. CHARLES. AGED 152 YEARES.
& WAS BURYED HERE NOVEMB. 15. 1635.

I'm surprised anyone lived that long back then in the days before proper real keg and cask aspirators. Although vinegar is used to preserve (ok well pickle) things so that may explain his old age. He certainly looks like a weird beard though...