A COUPLE who met through farming in the Second World War have celebrated their diamond wedding in Worcester.

Margaret and George Johnson were working on neighbouring farms in Staffordshire when they met – Mrs Johnson was in the Land Army working on a farm in Greatgate, near Uttoxeter, and Mr Johnson was a farm worker in the next village of Bradley.

Mrs Johnson, aged 82, said: “Back in those days you used to have a gang of workers on a farm and then when it came to threshing and you wanted more pairs of hands, the neighbouring farms sent two or three men to help. George was one of those.”

The couple courted for nearly three years before they married at Croxden Church.

Farming has been a theme running through their marriage and the couple set up home in a tied cottage on the farm where Mr Johnson, 83, worked in Bradley.

A year later their son Ken was born and after about three years they moved to another farm in Sudbury, a few miles east of Uttoxeter, where Mr Johnson worked as a herdsman. Their second child Sue was born there.

Just as Mrs Johnson was settling into life in Sudbury, her husband announced they were emigrating to Canada.

They went to a farm at Woodstock, near Lake Superior, Ontario, where Mr Johnson had his first introduction to Jersey cows. After five months Mr Johnson decided they should return to England.

They eventually ended up on a farm in Shropshire, before another one in Warwickshire, then back to Shropshire and eventually Wichenford, near Worcester, where they had two more children, Jennifer and Michael.

Since retiring Mr Johnson has kept British Toggenburg goats, which he has exported to Spain, Trinidad, Dubai, Kuwait, Uganda and other African companies. He is also a vintage tractor enthusiast and belongs to the Vale of Evesham Sheep Dog Society.

The couple, who retired to Hindlip 16 years ago, have 11 grandchildren and five great grandchildren.

They celebrated their diamond wedding on Thursday, November 20, with a family dinner.