THE day Gladys Handley married Ralph Robinson, she had a little business to attend to before she could change into her wedding dress.

She helped her father calve a cow on the family's North Yorkshire smallholding. But she still got to the church in Farndale on time, and this week the couple, who now live at Kirkbymoorside, are celebrating their diamond wedding. Joining in the celebrations are their three sons, William, David and Ian, and daughter, Anne, and their ten grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

Mrs Robinson, 83, said she had been in the Land Army before their wartime wedding, and she and Ralph, now 82, had run farms at various locations over the years, including Sawdon and Nunnington, before their retirement.

She said they had worked hard on their farms, and her recipe for a long and happy marriage was: "We both pulled together."

Updated: 10:54 Saturday, April 26, 2003