A FORMER mayor and mayoress have celebrated their diamond wedding anniversary.

Keith and Nancy Wells, from Sedgefield, met while holidaying in Torquay in Devon in 1952.

Their eyes met while sitting on opposite tables at the YMCA Holiday Centre and it was not long before their holiday romance blossomed into love.

The couple married two years later in Mrs Wells’ hometown of Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, spending their honeymoon in Cornwall, where it poured down every day.

Apart from time spent carrying out National Service with the RAF, Mr Wells, who was born in Newcastle, spent his entire working life with the Co-op Insurance Society, before retiring in 1989.

Mrs Wells, 82, was employed in banking, before she too threw in her lot with the Co-op, working side-by-side with her husband.

After moving to Sedgefield following their marriage, Mr Wells took an interest in local politics and was a Sedgefield parish and later town councillor for 20 years.

In 1986, he was appointed mayor for 12 months.

Mrs Wells, meanwhile, is a keen gardener and served as secretary of the Sedgefield Community Association for 40 years.

The couple have a son and daughter, as well as four grandchildren and three great grandchildren.

And it was with their family and friends that Mr and Mrs Wells celebrated their Diamond Wedding anniversary.

They also received a surprise visit from the Chairman of Durham County Council, Councillor John Robinson, who also hails from Sedgefield and is a former Sedgefield Town Council mayor.

Mrs Wells best summed up the secret to a long and happy marriage when she said: “You have to work together and share the good times with the bad. No couple can say they’ve never have a wrong word.”