A COUPLE were today celebrating 70 years of marriage with a holiday in Blackpool.

Gladys and Clyde Foden, of Church, were married at St Andrews Church, Accrington, in 1930.

Gladys, 87, and Clyde, 90, met during the Accrington holidays after Gladys had been away but was forced go home because she had toothache.

Gladys said: "There weren't many people about at that time because most people were on holiday but two or three of us used to go down town to the pictures and I met Clyde.

"I met him through our friends and he asked me out so it started from there."

Gladys, who was 18, and Clyde, who was 20, married that year but could not afford to go on honeymoon.

Instead they saved up to rent a house in Bale Street, Accrington, next door to Gladys's mum and dad.

Gladys, was a weaver at the former John Bury's textile mill in Lonsdale Street, while Clyde worked in the delivery department at Whitbread's Brewery in Blackburn.

The couple have two children Roy, 62, and Betty, 65, but tragically lost son Verne who was involved in motorbike accident when he was 23. They also have three grandchildren, Miles, Sarah and Verne.

Gladys added: "We have had our ups and downs like everyone else.

"We are very quiet people and always have been.

"We haven't got any special solution for staying together -- we are just ordinary people who take each day as it comes."