Diamond couple share thoughts on 60 years of marriage

Arnold and Dorothy Townsend, of Tetbury Drive, Warndon, Worcester, celebrated 60 years of married bliss on Saturday.

The couple met at the Welcome Club in the old public hall that once stood on the site of Worcester’s Cornmarket car park.

Mr Townsend, now 81, was completing his National Service at the time in the Royal Electrical Mechanical Engineers, while Mrs Townsend was working at the Stylish Glove factory on the corner of St George’s Lane. The couple wrote to each other while Mr Townsend was away on active service and were engaged when he returned safely home.

They married at St George’s Church, Barbourne, and lived with Mrs Townsend’s parents in Sabrina Avenue until they were able to get a place of their own in Buttermere Drive, Warndon.

Mr and Mrs Townsend later bought their current home in nearby Tetbury Drive, where they have lived for more than 40 years.

The couple have three children – Alan, aged 56, Bill, 51, and Tracy, 45 – and four grandchildren.

They like to spend their time going to tea dances and are members of The Oddfellows society.

Mrs Townsend, 79, said the secret to their lasting marriage was taking the bad times with the good.

She said: “We’ve had our ups and downs but we have come through them.

“The trouble today is many couples don’t want to make a commitment. You’ve got to take the good times with the bad, otherwise you don’t appreciate it when it’s good.”

To celebrate, the couple had a party on Saturday at Claines Royal British Legion Club where they were joined by about 70 members of their family and close friends.

Instead of presents, Mr and Mrs Townsend asked for donations to be given to St George’s Church.

Mrs Townsend said: “My mother and father were married there, my siblings and I were baptised there, as were our children and two of our grandchildren.

“When you get to our age there’s nothing you really want. We’d much rather the money went to something worthwhile.”