A CROOK couple marked their golden wedding anniversary yesterday with a quiet family celebration.

The day of Bobby and Agnes Sleights' wedding at Stanley Methodist Church was icy and foggy and transport was difficult because of the Suez crisis.

With petrol rationed, they could not get a taxi so had to borrow a Ford Anglia to get to the chapel and then on to Taylor's, in Bishop Auckland, for the wedding photographs.

They met when they were both 16, when Agnes was courting Bobby's friend.

Bobby and Agnes were engaged when they were 19 and married two years' later.

Mrs Sleights was from a family of 11 children and worked at Ramar Textiles, in Crook.

A colleague made her wedding dress.

After bringing up three children, Mrs Sleights spent 25 years as a home help.

From his first job as a post boy at a brickyard, Mr Sleights had an unblemished work record.

He retired aged 65 in 2000 without ever losing a day through illness.

Half of his career was spent in different pits around Crook and Washington, before he spent 20 years as a porter at Bishop Auckland General Hospital.

Mrs Sleights said: "We were teenage sweethearts and once we got together we never looked at anyone else."