A FAMILY friendship led to a marriage that has lasted 50 years for Bob and Margaret Bishop, of Trimnel Green, Droitwich.

Mrs Bishop said: "Bob's father was a friend of my uncle and he asked me out when he was visiting one day.

"I was 17 at the time and he was 23. We went to an ice show in London on a coach trip, but it was fairly casual to begin with. My mother thought I was too young."

Three years later, on April 3, 1956, they got married at St James's Church, Edgbaston, and went on to have four children and eight grandchildren. When they married, Mr Bishop was a pattern maker in the machine tools industry and his wife was a clerk at the Royal Orthopaedic Hospital in Broad Street, Birmingham.

Afterwards, they moved to Longbridge and it was not until 1967 that they moved to Droitwich. By then he had been working at Archdales in Worcester for six years, but he was made redundant only four months later.

With a partner, he then set up his own business as a master pattern maker in Hallow, near Worcester, from which he retired through ill health 14 years ago, when he was 62.

Mrs Bishop, who is now 70, worked at the Raven Hotel in Droitwich for 20 years and made many friends as a result.

"We don't belong to any clubs, but Bob and I enjoy each other's company and we are a very close family," said Mrs Bishop.

"His mother and father followed us to Droitwich and we had a wonderful relationship."

After a family get-together, they are planning to go to

the Yorkshire Dales for a short break.