Stone couple celebrate 71 years of happy marriage

Shoemaker Place residents Roy and Jean Ellerton celebrated their anniversary on August 1 and were thrown a special celebration to mark the huge milestone.

Roy said: "Our wedding was at Trentham church. We had a little incident on the day – my wife got to the church first!

"I was being driven to the church and we passed the pub and the driver suggested we go for a pint which meant my wife was waiting for me, which wasn’t a very good start. Anyway, the wedding went well, and we went away for a week."

Despite the minor wedding day hiccup, Jean still constantly tells him that she loves him, still affectionately refers to him as ‘Buggerlugs’ and ‘her Gem’.

Roy said: "We’ve had a wonderful life. We had two children, twins Mark and Diane, and a marvellous cat called Monty.

"Diane is wonderful, unfortunately our son Mark died when he was 40 years old, which made a vast difference to our lives.

"That was the big challenge we had. We had a lovely, detached bungalow that was designed by Jean’s father and me, and apart from losing Di’s twin brother, we’ve had a marvellous life."

When asked what he thought the secret of a happy marriage was, Roy said: "The love we have, and being true to each other. If I could offer some advice to newlyweds today, I’d say don’t rush into things and take the time to create happiness.”