Diamond anniversary couple Joy and Richard Winters believe moving to St Neots is the reason they celebrated 60 years of marriage on Thursday.

Mrs Winters, 84, was working as a bus conductor in 1952 when she met bus driver Mr Winters, 89, while they were working at a bus depot in Dalston, East London.

After six months they were engaged and in a year were married, tying the knot on March 28, 1953.

“Richard’s father used to work as a stage door keeper at the London Palladium,” said Joy. “He kept telling me he was getting all these tickets free to try to get me to come along.

“I found out afterwards that Richard was paying for the tickets all along at four shillings, which was a lot back then.”

Mrs Winters, of Blackwood Road, Eaton Socon, added: “We had never been to St Neots before so we decided to go for a day trip. When we came back we thought that it was a lovely place.

“Richard, who was working for Ford at the time, read that W R Graves were moving to St Neots, so he wrote a letter and got a job. We were lucky really.

“We bought a bungalow and just settled. As Londoners we were used to socialising with our families so when we moved out here we needed to make friends, which we did, and it was completely different to what we were used to.

“I think if you are happy where you are living, everything will be good, that is how we have been together for 60 years. That and keeping out of one another’s way!”

The couple have three children Andrew, Janette and Ian and a three-year-old granddaughter Gabriella. They celebrated their anniversary with family and friends at Wyboston Lakes.