An elderly woman who fell over at home spent 20 hours on the floor before receiving help, an inquest has heard.

Elsie Brenda Evelyn Hartgroves, 94, who was born in Deptford but lived in Aylesbury, fell at her Buckinghamshire home at around 4.30 am on Good Friday (April 3), this year.

It wasn’t until later that evening when a family member attended her property to find her stricken on the ground with bruising.

The retired sectary, who was also a housewife, was immediately taken to Stoke Mandeville Hospital for treatment, where she denied feeling dizzy before falling.

At the pre-inquest review at Beaconsfield Coroner’s Court on May 5, senior coroner Crispin Butler told the court that Mrs Hartgroves was ‘speaking in full sentences.’

However, her health began to deteriorate over the Easter weekend, before she passed away on Easter Monday (April 6), at Stoke Mandeville Hospital.

She died nine days short of her 96th birthday, with her medical cause of death being down to a traumatic head injury and fragility of old age

Her full inquest will take place on July 28.