A VALE couple who met outside an Evesham pub are celebrating 60 years of marriage.

Ronald and Ivy Gardiner, of Bevans Lane, Hinton-on-the- Green, were just teenagers when they met in front of the Rose and Crown pub in 1951.

The following day Mr Gardiner, aged 80, visited Ivy, 77, on her 16th birthday while she was working at the Clifton Cinema in Evesham with a box of chocolates.

They were married the following year on Mrs Gardiner’s birthday at Hampton Church.

Mrs Gardiner worked as an usherette and her husband in market gardening and then at Dowty Mining as a metal polisher. They have four children, four grandchildren and one great-grandchild.

Mrs Gardiner said: “We met after I was working. I was with a friend and we met Ron outside the pub. Then we walked home and I said I shall have to go or my mother will be out for me. As I went to go he said, ‘Hey, blondie, just a minute, I would like a word with you’.

“He wanted to see me again and I was surprised because he hadn’t spoken to me.

“He can be very romantic.

For my anniversary every year he has had a bouquet of red roses delivered and he has never missed one. I think caring and trusting are the most important things.”

The pair will be celebrating the milestone with their family.