A MYSTIFIED couple wondered why friends and relatives congratulated them on their ruby wedding a full year ahead of the big day.

Confusion reigned when John and Barbara Medd, who run Medd's greengrocers shop in Norton, received congratulations and gifts from people who saw their picture and details in a newspaper photo-greeting.

But the well-wishers had got it wrong - because of a number of astonishing coincidences.

It transpired that there is another John and Barbara Medd in Helmsley.

The Helmsley Medds married on May 23, 1959, at Kirkbymoorside Methodist Chapel, while their Norton counterparts were married on June 6, 1960, at the Methodist Chapel in Saville Street, Malton.

To confuse matters further, the black and white photograph which appeared with the Helmsley Medds' ruby wedding photo greeting bears an uncanny resemblance to the Norton couple.

To avoid any further mix-ups, Mrs Medd from Norton has announced she and her husband will be celebrating their ruby anniversary this year.

"It was somebody else in the paper last year," she said. "It was a different couple, but we got cards, phone calls and people came in to the shop and congratulated us.

"This year, I thought I would let everybody know that it is us celebrating. Even some of our family thought they had missed a ruby wedding."

The Helmsley Medds were equally astonished to hear about all the amazing similarities.

"It's quite uncanny," said Helmsley's Mrs Medd. "We had heard of them and that they had the same names as me and my husband.

"We would like to give them our best regards for their anniversary."

Mrs Medd, who has just celebrated 41 years with husband, John, said there had been some confusion in the past when birth announcements had been placed in the paper and when her husband reached 21, but that they had never met the Norton Medds.

The Norton Medds will be celebrating their 40 years together with a family gathering at the Old Lodge Hotel in Malton.