WHEN Lenny Strong walked down the aisle with his two daughters, Lily and Ellen, on either arm, he set them on their way to a lifetime of happiness.

This week the County Durham sisters looked back on that day with great affection as they celebrated their joint golden wedding anniversary.

Lily and Jim Arthurs and Ellen and Denis Jackson, from Bishop Auckland, marked 50 years of marriage with a low-key family celebration.

Today, the quartet will enjoy a mass at St Mary's Church, to be carried out by Father Simon Weymes and Jim's uncle, Father Bill O'Neill.

The sisters met their sweethearts at dances.

Ellen and Denis met at Bishop Auckland Town Hall on New Year's Eve in 1948, and Lily met Jim in his home village of Leadgate, Consett, the same year.

After a courtship of dances and trips to the town's four picture houses, the two couples got engaged.

Coming from a mining family, Lily and Ellen's parents could not afford separate weddings, so they pledged their love for their partners together at St Wilfrid's Church, on April 11, 1953.

Ellen, 70, worked as a sewing-machinist for Gillyflower Frocks and Denis, 71, was a welder at Shildon Wagon Works.

The couple, who live in Waine Crescent, raised a son, Paul, and daughters, Ann and Elizabeth - who went on to marry brothers, Richard and Dennis Lockey - and have three grandchildren.

Ellen said: "Denis and I have always enjoyed each other's company. A marriage is something you need to work at and we are as happy together now as always.

"Being married at the same time as Lily has been nice, we have taken it in turns to have all our children, so they have grown up close like we are."

Lily and Jim, both 71, of Ruddick Avenue, have three daughters, Catherine, Joan and Christine, and five grandchildren.

At the time of their marriage, Jim worked as a plumber for Cummins Engines, in Darlington, and Lily worked in the offices of Doggart's department store, in Bishop Auckland.

Lily said: "A sense of humour, compromise and friendship have kept us strong. It was special celebrating our wedding with Ellen and Denis, and every anniversary since. The wedding day was also special to us because Jim's brother, Austin, married us soon after he was ordained as a priest."