Dancing duo’s diamond day

6:14pm Thursday 8th May 2008

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A PASSION for dancing brought a diamond couple together and has kept them close for 60 happy years.

Pat and Len Atkinson, of Hamilton Drive, Holgate, York, met at a dance in Clifford Street in 1946 and never wasted an opportunity to take to the floor over the decades that followed. They tied the knot on May 8, 1948, at St Clement's Church, in York.

Pat, 78, said: "My sister Connie's neighbour introduced us because she had known my husband from school."

Pat, who lived in the Bishopthorpe Road area of York with her sister at the time, worked at Rowntree's as a packer.

Len, 86, who was also from Bishopthorpe Road, worked at British Rail all his working life as a maintenance joiner before becoming a charge hand. He retired after 47 years.

Recalling their first meeting, Pat said they were attracted to each other because of their shared love of dancing. "Wherever there's dancing, we go," she said.