A MUCH-LOVED York couple are celebrating their 65th wedding anniversary today.

Roy, a retired Nestle engineer, and Pearl Goodwin, a retired nurse, from Strensall, married at the tender ages of 21 and 19 after meeting at Rowntrees where they worked, first hitting it off while on a young workers’ residential trip to the Isle of Man.

They now enjoy life as the “centre of the family”, with their three children, Andrew, Nigel, and Samantha, five grandchildren, and even some great grandchildren.

Their granddaughter Sally Phillips, 22, an English teacher near Grimsby said: “They are the centre of our family- they’re so lovely and will just do anything for their family and to look after others.

“They still hold hands - grandad is a typical Yorkshireman and nanna used to knit clothes for my teddies.

“They’re used to seeing family whenever they want, before Covid, and this was the first Christmas without them, so we had a second Christmas celebration in June- though they quite enjoyed seeing their friends at the ‘old people hour’ in the supermarkets.”

Roy opened a letter on the morning of their wedding calling him up for national service, but he didn’t tell Pearl till afterwards, as he didn’t want to spoil the wedding- she missed him a lot, and when he returned, they moved to Huntington.

They now enjoy meeting their friends at the M&S café and gardening where Pearl enjoys repainting her Buddha statue and Roy buys her the paints.

Sally said: “I think that the secret to their marriage is their real love and care for each other, and they do everything together- we are so proud and grateful for everything they have given us.”

They are celebrating their anniversary with a garden party.