A CHILTON couple are marking 60 years of married bliss today.

Bob and Violet Cornish will be celebrating their diamond wedding anniversary with a small family gathering at their home in The Pentlands.

The couple met at a party at the Grange Inn Hotel, Carrville, which was run by Mr Cornish's parents.

He had travelled to the party from an RAF base in Manchester where he was stationed.

He recognised his future wife because he used to play cards with her brother and had seen a photograph of her in the house.

Mrs Cornish had recently returned to the area after working as a kitchen maid, then cook, for the Sheriff of London in Sevenoaks, Kent.

They were married on May 23, 1942, at St Paul's Church, Spennymoor, and have lived in Chilton for almost 50 years, where Mr Cornish, 81, worked as a miner.

The couple have two children, Rose and Robert, who also live in Chilton, five grandsons, one great-granddaughter and five great-grandsons.

Mrs Cornish, 82, said of their 60 years together: "It is a big achievement and it has been worth it. There has to be give and take, that is the only way you get through."