A COUPLE celebrating their Golden Wedding anniversary revealed the secret of a long and happy marriage.

Maurice and Joy Cooper, of Flowers Close, Blackburn, said the secret was being tolerant and generous with each other.

Maurice, 69, a life-long Blackburn Rovers fan, met his wife Pauline, 68, on the shop floor at Jones' textile factory, Audley Range, in 1947.

He said: "I was serving my apprenticeship when I saw her. She'd just started working in the office upstairs, it was her first day."

They married five years later at St Theresa's RC Church, Bentley Street, Blackburn, on a gloriously crisp and sunny day in 1952.

Maurice has worked as an engineer for a number of companies in the cotton, brick-making and dry-cleaning industries.

Pauline worked for the Inland Revenue as a tax collector and for the inspectors in Blackburn for over 30 years.

They have two children: Gillian, 47, and Michael, 42 and two grandchildren, Mark, 21, and Ryan, 15.

They celebrated with their family at their daughter's home in Thornton.