Ena Sharples (née Schofield) is a fictional character from the British ITV soap opera Coronation Street, played by Violet Carson. She appeared in the first-ever episode, broadcast on 9 December 1960, and stayed with the show until 2 April 1980. Development Ena was the widowed caretaker of the Glad Tidings Mission Hall and spent much of her time criticising the activities and loose morals of the street's other residents. One of the main characters during the 1960s, she was featured less regularly in the 1970s due to the declining health of actress Violet Carson, and was written out in 1980. Almost always wearing a double-breasted overcoat and hairnet, she spent much of her free time in the serials' early years with her two cronies, Martha Longhurst (Lynne Carol) and Minnie Caldwell (Margot Bryant), in the snug bar of local pub The Rovers Return Inn, drinking milk stout. Ena particularly criticised Elsie Tanner (Pat Phoenix), who she believed had loose morals. In turn, Elsie strongly disliked Ena for her seemingly incessant gossip and desire to know about the private lives of others; and the two confronted each other frequently. The final episode featuring Ena was broadcast on 2 April 1980. It attracted little media or public attention, as the producers intended her to continue in the serial – the character was merely going to stay with a friend, Henry Foster, in St Annes while her flat in Coronation Street was being renovated. Unfortunately all subsequent storylines involving Ena had to be scrapped owing to Carson being too ill to appear, due to the symptoms of pernicious anemia. Carson died on Boxing Day 1983 at the age of 85, following her departure in 1980. No further mention of Ena was made, and it was assumed she had moved to St Annes permanently. The first reference to her after this was in the 1985 spin-off video The Jubilee Years when Ken Barlow revealed that Ena died "a couple of years ago", placing her death around the same time as that of Carson's. The first mention of Ena's death in the show itself was on 27 November 1989, during a scene in the Rovers Return when Deirdre says to builder Maurice Jones: "Ena Sharples would be turning in her grave." In 2010, a short online video titled Ken: A Life on the Street reiterated that she was no longer alive when Ken Barlow (William