A ROMANTIC trip away for St Valentine's day helped one Spa couple celebrate their golden wedding anniversary.

Seventy-one-year-old Bill Gandy, of Winslow Avenue, married the girl next door, or actually the girl from two doors down, when he was 21 after courting her for six years.

Sheila Gandy was 14 when the couple first started going out and has lived in Droitwich for all her life. The golden couple married at St Peter's Church on February 19, 1955.

"It was just a great day with snow on the ground. We went to London for our honeymoon sight-seeing and seeing relatives," said Sheila. Fifty years later, the golden couple went to Weymouth for Valentine's Day and to mark Sheila's 70th birthday, arriving back just in time for a party at Wychbold British Legion last Saturday. The romantic pair were surrounded by family and friends at the School Road venue. They have seven children, eight grandsons and seven granddaughters, who were amongst the 110 partygoers.

When asked the recipe for a happy marriage Sheila said: "Just sticking at it. It's no good giving up at the first tiff. Things don't always run smooth but you get through it together."