A LITTLE give and take is the secret of a long and happy marriage, according to a couple celebrating their Golden Wedding anniversary.

John and Mary Procter, of Owen Court, Clayton-le-Moors, married at St John's Church, Rossendale, in 1952.

They met met two years previously at Whitaker Park and married after John had come out of the Army. Mary was 18 and John 21.

John, 71, was an engineer by trade and worked at Pickerings, the Blackburn carpet loom exporters, before it closed. Mary, 68, worked at Butterworths Mill, Rossendale, as a weaver before she left to give birth to Carole in 1953. After Tracey, her second daughter, was born in 1963 she worked in their Cloughfold mixed grocers.

Since retiring, they enjoy spending time with their grandchildren and going on extended holidays. They visited Tunisia for six weeks in January this year and plan to go to Cyprus next year.

They have six grandchildren aged between 25 and two years.