The site of their union may lie submerged in the murky depths of a North Yorkshire reservoir, but a York couple's marriage is still firmly afloat.

Farming couple Dorothy and Ronnie Jackson, who live at Towthorpe, near York, tied the knot in 1940 at West End Church, which now sits at the bottom of Thruscross Reservoir, in the Washburn Valley, near Harrogate.

Following today's diamond wedding, they will be surrounded by friends and family at the Cottage Inn, in Haxby to celebrate.

The couple first hit it off at a dance in Dacre Banks and, after they married, ran a farm in Darley, in Nidderdale, for many years before moving to an arable farm in York in the 1960s.

Dorothy, whose maiden name was Wood, was born in Pannal, near Harrogate, but moved to Westend with her family to farm at Brecks Nook, which survived the flooding of the valley.

Her late sister Phyllis married into the famous Peel family of Westend.

Ronnie, who was born and brought up in Nidderdale, was a well-know pigeon racer and became a master beekeeper.

The couple have four children, Jean, David, Linda and Hazel, seven grand children and ten great grandchildren.

Mrs Jackson said the couple regularly went for picnics at the reservoir and had seen the church again - now just a pile of stones - when the waters dried up in the 1995 drought.

On what makes marriage last, she said: "We have had our ups and downs, but we have always stuck together. I think you have to give and take in all marriages."