Lay preacher Maurice Atack is getting married to a spinster who doesn't like going to church - more than 50 years after they first met!

Irene Firth, 70, of Wilsden, has admitted "being keen" on Maurice as a teenager but she still needed some persuading before saying "I do".

In fact, Maurice, now 71, had to propose 20 times before she finally relented.

The couple became engaged on the Glorious Twelfth when Maurice, Free Church pastor at Cottingley Town Hall for over 45 years, slipped an expensive diamond cluster ring on her finger.

Now they are waiting to sell their homes so they can get wed at Wilsden United Reformed Church and move into a small bungalow in the village, preferably before Christmas. And Maurice is asking his son, 46, an air traffic controller at London/Luton Airport, to be best man.

The widower, whose wife Margaret, nee Thompson, died two years ago, said: "I didn't get down on one knee because at my age I might not have got up again. Irene said 'No' so many times that I thought I had better nail it with a ring when she finally said 'Yes'.

"I have known her since she was 15 and she worked with Margaret and myself publishing the Bingley Guardian. I went into the army when I was 18 and she went to work in the mills. But we've always kept in touch. She and Margaret were friends and used to visit one another's houses."

After his wife died, their friendship blossomed. He said: "I used to ask Irene to marry me every time I saw her. Then one day we were up on the St Ives estate and I said: 'Come on now, it's time you were saying yes'. She must have been in love with me because she did. I was overjoyed, of course."

And Irene said: "He went on and on about it so in the end I thought: 'I'll go for it.' I was keen on him when he was about 15 or 16 so I suppose I have finally got him in the end!

"We get on well though I don't think I shall be going to church so often. I stopped going to church when I was 18 though I will go when it's the harvest service. It's not a problem though he did tell me I shouldn't be mowing on a Sunday!"

She added: "Maurice told me: 'I know what I want, I want you'. I wasn't sure because you get into your own ways but I don't see why it should not work out. I've got a sideboard full of cards wishing me all the best. Everybody seems very pleased for us.

"I don't want people thinking I've been miserable not being married. It has not bothered me unduly. I enjoy swimming, sequence dancing and keeping fit and have lots of friends."

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