A GOLDEN Worcester couple who met while they were at a Saturday evening dance are celebrating 50 years of marriage today.

Ken and Dilys Jenkins of Northwick Road, Bevere, will be enjoying the occasion with 24 close friends and family at the weekend.

The couple met by chance at a dance in Ferhill Heath when Dilys was 19 and he was 23 years old.

"He had just come out of the navy about a fortnight before and we were both there that night, but I can't remember exactly how we met or got talking," said Mrs Jenkins.

After a four-year courtship and having spotted a house they liked for sale - which they have now lived in for the past 50 years - they decided to tie the knot.

"I think he just said to me there is a house for sale in Northwick Road that we can buy, so shall we get married," she added.

"So we bought the house and about six months later after doing it up, we married and moved in on the same day."

Mr and Mrs Jenkins married at the St Martin's Church in Cornmarket on a cold day in January.

"I think it had been snowing that day, it was quite cold.

"I was wearing a turquoise wedding dress," she said.

Mrs Jenkins, now 73, worked for the company Russell and Dorrell on the sewing machines and Mr Jenkins, 77, was a painter and decorator until he retired 12 years ago.

Mr Jenkins said: "We had wanted to get married the week before on Dilys' birthday but I think they were fully booked on that day.

"But we moved into our house on the day we got married.

"I had been working on it for about five or six months before to get it ready."

The couple, who have two sons, say the secret to a long and happy marriage is sharing and listening to each other.