A Cullingworth couple celebrated 60 years of marriage, surrounded by family and friends at the weekend.

John and Mollie Smallwood marked the occasion on Sunday afternoon with lunch at the Quarry House Inn above Cross Roads.

John, 87, said: "It was an excellent do, it was fabulous.

"We had 51 people there, from the ages of two to 87. And we got a very nice card from the Queen."

Mollie, now 81, was a hairdresser but served in munitions during the war. John was a partner in estate agents Dacre Son & Hartley. During the war he dealt in requisitions for various government departments including the Ministry of Aircraft Production and the Admiralty.

The pair met when John saw Mollie at a dance and bet his friends £5 that he would marry her within three months.

He said: "We got engaged the third time we went out. And I got my five quid."

They married on Mollie's 21st birthday in 1942, at a time when war torn Europe was in the grip of Nazi Germany.

John remembers how he arrived at the church on his wedding day to find that his groomsman, Albert Scull, who was with Bomber Command, had failed to return from a mission the previous night.

John also remembered the difficulties involved with celebrating a wedding in wartime.

He said: "After the wedding we couldn't get anywhere to do the catering.

"We all had dinner behind the curtain, on the stage at the Mechanics Institute.

"Then, when we arrived in London on the first night of our honeymoon, it was in the middle of the blackout.

"We couldn't get a meal in the restaurant so all we could have was a spam sandwich in our room."