THE former editor of the Berrow’s Worcester Journal and his wife will be able to celebrate their diamond wedding with family, friends and the Queen this week.

Lionel and Joan Wheat, of Keats Avenue, Barbourne, Worcester, will be among a select group from the local community enjoying a special celebration of the Diamond Jubilee in Worcester Cathedral on Wednesday in the presence of the Queen.

A day later they will reach 60 years of marriage before celebrating with relatives and friends on Saturday.

The Methodist Church has played a prominent role in their lives as they met in a village chapel in Cambridgeshire when they were 16 before they married in 1952 and they are still actively involved at St Andrew’s Methodist Church in Pump Street, Worcester.

Mrs Wheat, aged 81, also believes getting on well and not having a cross word with each other could be the secret behind their long lasting union.

“We have never argued as such, we have differences but we always go to bed happy,” she said.

They first moved to Worcester in 1963 when Mr Wheat, 82, joined Berrow’s newspapers as a sub-editor.

He was later promoted to production editor for the weekly paper in 1969, a position he held until 1972 when he became editor of the Bromsgrove Messenger.

Mr Wheat returned to work in the Faithful City in 1979 as editor of the Berrow’s Worcester Journal, the world’s oldest newspaper, established in 1690.

He was promoted to editorial executive, a post he held until his retirement in 1991, when the family moved back to the city.

Mr Wheat saw many changes during his time on the paper, including the move to using computers as well as campaigning to keep the apostrophe in Berrow’s Worcester Journal.

“I battled to keep the apostrophe in Berrow’s. In the end they accepted it should stay and it is still there today.”

The couple have three children – Christine, a headteacher from Worcester, Nigel, who works in computing in Portishead, and Emma who lives in London and works in insurance – and seven grandchildren.