A Suffolk couple who enjoy a daily reminder of their many years together are today marking 60 years of marriage.
Jack and Shirley Thrower still live within earshot of the bells at St John’s Church, Woodbridge, where they tied the knot on March 19, 1955.
A 20-year-old Mr Thrower was walking along the river wall almost two years earlier when he spotted Shirley Bates, 18, knitting at the water’s edge.
Mr Thrower’s remembers breaking the ice by asking: ‘you aren’t going to dive in, are you?’. Striking up conversation, he offered to walk her home, and romance soon blossomed.
Mr Thrower, who had just left the army, was working as a long distance lorry driver and living in Ufford. His new love was the granddaughter of John Theobald, keeper of two Woodbridge pubs, the Bay Horse and the Royal William, and the first man in town to own a penny-farthing bicycle.
Following marriage, Mr Thrower took a new job in removals, while Mrs Thrower began work at a wool shop opposite Lloyds Bank.
The couple had three children, Mark, Andrew and Rachel, who are now all in the 50s with children of their own.
Mr Thrower, 82 and Mrs Thrower, 80, agree that “getting along with each other” has been the key to their long marriage.
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