Two couples are celebrating an incredible 130 years of marriage between them.

For one husband and wife, a regular bus trip proved just the ticket for a life together, while a nurse's bedside manner captured the heart of a patient recovering from an operation.

When bus clippie Norman Brogden set his cap at a pretty passenger, little did he know that six decades later they'd be celebrating their diamond wedding anniversary.

For weeks, bus conductor Norman had his eye on his wife-to-be Josephine, who lived just yards away from the bus terminus in Ravenscliffe Avenue.

He had asked her numerous times to go out with him but she always declined because she was engaged to another man who was living in London.

But undeterred, the former soldier kept on asking each time the bus stopped near Josephine's home. Eventually, she decided there was no future for her and her fiancé and agreed to a date with Norman.

Next month, the couple will celebrate their diamond day.

Josie, 80, said: "He was a conductor at the time and his driver said to me my mate wants to take you out.' I said I couldn't, because I was engaged at the time.

"It took a bit of persuading but, finally, I went out with him. He said I wasn't getting rid of him that easily and made arrangements to get married."

Mr and Mrs Brogden, who live in Brackendale Grove, Thackley, were married at Ravenscliffe Methodist Church, which has since been demolished.

Mr Brogden, 88, joined the army in 1938 after working for Bradford City Tramways as a delivery boy and in Bradford's thriving textile industry.

He was a light-heavyweight army boxing champ before a military truck broke both his legs and he then served as an army driving instructor to soldiers in Wales until the end of the war.

The couple have a son, Martin, 54 and two grown-up grandchildren, aged 28 and 30.

They will mark their anniversary with a meal in a restaurant, Mrs Brogden said.

Meanwhile, another couple will soon celebrate an incredible 70 years of marriage - their platinum anniversary.

Dennis Webb, 94, owned a Bradford business, and played as an amateur for Bradford Northern rugby league club, now the Bradford Bulls, making his debut in 1934.

Lilian Webb, 93, was a nurse in Rawdon and they met while Dennis was recuperating from a cartilage operation.

The couple were married in Leeds Parish Church on April 16, 1938 and they set up home in Bramley.

Mr Webb founded Webb's Wholesale Warehouse in Leeds Road, Bradford and retired in 1986 aged 73 after having expanded his business across the north of England.

The couple have four children, seven grand children and five great grand children, two of whom are travelling from South Africa to join in a family celebration.

Lilian has carried out voluntary work for the blind in Leeds and later Harrogate, gaining recognition for over 40 years service with a tea party at Buckingham Palace.

Mr and Mrs Webb's son Howard said: "It's amazed us all. We nearly lost my dad one Christmas and my mum nursed him back to health, just by holding his hand.

"They're still like two little lovebirds."

Dennis and Lilian now live in the Granby Nursing Home in Harrogate.