A TEESDALE couple had an extra special reason to celebrate St Valentine's Day.

Reg and Greta Tallentire enjoyed their diamond wedding anniversary with friends and family at their home in Toft Hill, on Friday, and received a card from the Queen.

The couple met when they were out walking near the village after attending chapel one Sunday evening in 1937.

Mrs Tallentire, 82, recalled: "I was only 16 years old, Reg was 17, and he escorted me home to Windmill and became part of the family."

The couple got engaged in 1941 and were both called up for Army service. Mr Tallentire served in Italy, on the Yugoslav border and Palestine. His wife was a medical driver in Britain.

They had been due to marry on February 7, 1943, but Mr Tallentire's leave was postponed for a week so they married on St Valentine's Day at Windmill Chapel.

Mr Tallentire said: "It was tough during the war, apart from a six-week spell we were apart for three years. Communication was poor, Greta wrote every day but on one occasion 200 letters arrived in one batch."

After the war they settled in Toft Hill and have led active lives in the community.

He was a director of the family motor body work business in Bishop Auckland, played cricket for Etherley for 30 years and was a member of Etherley parish and Barnard Castle rural district councils.

Mrs Tallentire worked as a chiropodist, running clinics for elderly people in Teesdale and is a keen member of the Windmill Chapel congregation.

Mr Tallentire said: "We're still as much in love now as always."

Instead of gifts, many friends and relatives donated money to Windmill Chapel, on behalf of Mr and Mrs Tallentire, which is raising money for a new roof.