AN INQUEST has found that a 77-year-old woman died naturally after stopping to sit down during a walk.

Friends found Mavis Hardy lying dead next to a tree on a popular walking route a mile from her Fordingbridge home.

She lived alone in a cottage at The Fairings, off Fordingbridge High Street, and would often walk up to 10 miles a day.

Police were called and found her front door was left open.

DC Jonathan Matthews, from Lyndhurst CID, said it was his belief that Ms Hardy had climbed over a barbed wire fence on the Avon Bridle footpath and had stopped to rest.

She was found on November 30 last year, with her hat and gloves neatly placed down by her side.

She had last spoken with her family on November 14. Due to the time gap it was hard to verify how she died.

The inquest was told she had suffered from a heart condition. She was also suffering financial stress but there was nothing to suggest she had taken her own life.

Recording a verdict that she died of natural causes, Mr Wiseman said there was “no certainty” but he was “prepared to find that she was overcome by a natural event when she collapsed”.