A HAPPY York couple were today celebrating 50 golden years together.

Len and Eileen Spray, of Huntington, were married at All Saints' Church, Wistow, near Selby, on June 20, 1953.

"It was a fine sunny day. I had hair and a flat stomach then," laughed Len.

After the wedding, the couple honeymooned in Llandudno, then set up home in Selby.

Len, 73, and Eileen, 70, moved to Leeds, Huddersfield, and then to York during Len's 17 years as a company director.

He then moved into the hospitality business, the couple running the Grasmead House Hotel in Scarcroft Hill for ten years.

During that time Len worked as a director of the York Tourism Board and was chairman of the Greater York Association of Hotels and Guest Houses.

He said: "We loved it, we worked well together as a team. It is a 24- hours-a-day, seven-days-a-week job, and in York it is 365-days-a-year. One thing about it is you make some money as you never have any time to go out and spend it."

The couple retired in the mid-1990s.

"We wanted to spend more time with our grandchildren," said Len.

The couple have three children, Lesley, John and Nicola, and five grandchildren. Len is also a qualified yacht master and a skilled keyboard player, running youth jazz orchestras. He said the secret to a long and happy marriage was friendship.

"We met when we were teenagers and have never looked back."

Updated: 08:51 Friday, June 20, 2003