THE secret to a long and successful marriage is love plus plenty of give and take, say Ray and Alice Turner.

The couple, who live in Witton, Blackburn, celebrated their golden wedding yesterday. They were married at All Saints in Bolton Road.

Ray, formerly a driver with Blackburn Council and Turner's removal firm in King Street, said: "Married couples will fall out but it's normal. Some people say they will walk through the door, but you don't. If you love each other you find a way. Even if you come home in a state and your dinner is dried to a crisp!" Ray, 72, met Alice, 69, after their friend Jim Collum introduced them on a night out in Blackburn's Havelock Street in 1949. They married three years later and spent their honeymoon in Fleetwood.

They have three grandchildren and two sons, John, a 35-year-old managing director who works in London, and Alex, 49, a long-distance driver.

Ray also worked at Lion Brewery and the RSPCA. Alice was a capstan operator at Blackburn's Royal Ordnance factory.