Mystery of 1968 Wolverhampton wedding couple solved after appeal
A couple who married more than 52 years ago have been reunited with the only video footage of their big day after an appeal to identify them.
Video footage of a mystery couple's wedding day was found over the summer and, after an appeal in the Express & Star, Margaret and Brian Hill were identified within a day.
Jean Wootton, from Wolverhampton, was told about the footage of 'Maggie and Gary' and thought it may be of the wedding of her friends Margaret and Gary Cullum,.
But when Mrs Cullum was given the footage she was disappointed to find out it was a different couple.
WATCH the footage here:
Mrs Cullum had a number of people contact her trying to help find the mystery pair, and after a relative contacted Mr and Mrs Hill, Mr Hill rushed to buy a paper then made contact with Mrs Cullum.
"It's really cheered everybody up," Mrs Hill, 73, said. "We had a phone call from a friend of ours, I was sort of thinking is it us, then my husband ran to the newspaper shop and got a paper and we straight away said yes it is us."
Mr and Mrs Hill married on October 12, 1968, at St Thomas's Church in Wednesfield.
The footage was found in the loft of Alan Cox, who now lives in Runcorn, whose parents were John and Betty Cox. Mrs Cox was a good friend of Mrs Hill.
And Jean Wootton used to babysit for Mr and Mrs Cox's children.
Mrs Hill, a grandmother-of-four from Willenhall, added: "Betty is someone I was big friends with before I was married, it was a long-standing thing.
"We had no idea at all that this video was being taken.
"I think John Cox Alan's dad was a bit in front of his time, at that time people didn't have video cameras.
"My daughter came over on the day it was in the paper and managed to get the video from the website on our TV.
"We were saying 'oh that's such and such', a lot of people on that video my daughter had never seen.
"That day there were quite a lot of weddings because of the time of year because of the tax rebate.
"It's such a sad time at the moment, it's nice to have a happy story."
Mrs Cullum added: "They're just absolutely thrilled. The happiness I could hear coming from this couple, it was there in their voices.
"I had reams and reams of people contacting me with potential Maggie and Garys.
"We're happy because we achieved what we wanted to do."
Mr Hill, a retired engineer, and Mrs Hill, a retired nursery nurse, are planning to meet up with Mr and Mrs Cullum once the coronavirus pandemic is over.
