A TRIP to Blackpool led to 60 years of happiness for Four Marks couple Beryl and David Hill, who celebrated their diamond wedding anniversary with a party at Medstead village hall.

It was on that first meeting that they found they lived just a few miles from each other in Chesterfield, Derbyshire, and so arranged to meet up again. On their third date, Beryl recalled: “David asked me to marry him and I said ‘you will have to ask my father first’.”

David duly got Beryl’s father’s approval as 18 months later the couple were married on August 14, 1957, at the Church of Saint Mary and All Saints – more famously known as the church with the crooked spire – and they spent their honeymoon in Scotland.

Dairyman David worked on farms in Eastmoor and Bourton-on-the-Water before the family – as by this time the couple had two sons, Andrew and Michael – moved to a farm in Chawton where David was in charge of a large herd of pedigree Friesian cattle.

They later moved to their home in Four Marks and Beryl, after completing her training as a science teacher, became head of science at Amery Hill School, Alton, for 20 years and then, after retirement, taught in a private school for 12 years.

David, 83, also had a change of career and went to work for cattle cake makers BOCM Pauls on Alton Industrial Estate.

Now they are enjoying their retirement and both love gardening and, said Beryl, “David is in charge of the garden and we grow all our fruit and veg, and I think that is why we are so healthy”.

“At their diamond wedding lunch, with entertainment by The Men in Black, among the guests was Beryl’s sister, Mavis, who had been bridesmaid at their wedding and who made the two beautiful anniversary cakes. One was shared by the congregation of The Good Shepherd in Four Marks, where the couple have been active members for 31 years.

In welcoming the guests Beryl, 79, who admits she is still bubbling, said how God had blessed them over the years with a wonderful caring family, two sons, four grandchildren and a great granddaughter, two sisters and their families, and many friends. In lieu of presents, more than £1,100 has been given to charity.

“Thanks to our generous friends and family we can pass on our blessings to others. The money is to go to RNIB and Saint Michael’s Hospice,” she said.

Recalling the years since their first meeting, Beryl said: “Sixty years have passed so quickly and so many things have happened in this time. Every experience makes you grow closer together. The journey has not all been plain sailing, but God has walked beside us and guided us. Caring and sharing not only with family and friends but with all God’s people, the key to happiness.”