A DEVOTED couple’s Christmas was made extra special as they celebrated 70 years of marriage.

Dennis and Peggy Pegg were surrounded by family and friends in Aldeburgh yesterday to toast their platinum wedding anniversary.

The couple – who married on Boxing Day 1941 in Halesworth – are at the head of family that spans across five generations.

They have six children, 12 grandchildren, 13 great-grandchildren and one great-great grandchild.

“I can’t believe we are responsible for all this lot,” said Mrs Pegg, 88, as the celebrations got under way at Aldeburgh Primary School’s Music Room.

Mrs Pegg, who grew up as Peggy Rogers with her 12 brothers and sisters in Halesworth, met her future husband in 1941 when she worked on the staff at a house in Aldeburgh and he was learning his craft at his father’s workshop in Park Road, just a few hundred yards away.

After a six-month romance, they married at the United Reformed Church in Halesworth.

The festive wedding date was scheduled to coincide from Mr Pegg’s annuual leave from the Army during the war years. However, the next day the couple were back at Farnham, Surrey, where Mr Pegg, who had six brothers and sisters, was posted with the Royal Service Army Corps.

The couple have lived in Aldeburgh all their married lives. Mr Pegg ran the family business, JT Pegg & Sons, that was started by his father John in 1912 and is now run by Mr Pegg’s sons Dennis (known as Sam) and Chris, and Dennis’s son, who is also called Dennis. The specialist metalwork and engineering firm is best known in recent times for making Maggi Hambling’s Scallop sculpture on Aldeburgh beach,

Yesterday, the couple’s children, Margaret, Janet, Dennis, Pamela, Angela and Chris, staged a celebration fit for the big occasion, which included a letter of congratulations from The Queen.

“We’ve been married longer than some people live,” said Mr Pegg, 92.

“We’ve had a few problems like everybody else but we’re very happy. It’s all about meeting each other half way.”