AN Okehampton couple celebrated their diamond wedding last week. Bill and Barbara Norris first met in 1942, when they were both working in a munitions factory in Chippenham. 'I had to clock people in and out, and if anyone was three minutes late, I had to dock them by a quarter,' said Bill. 'I used to stop Barbara about three times a week.' When Bill was called up to the navy at the end of 1943, the couple wrote to each other as pen-pals. During his service, Bill saved up to buy Barbara an engagement ring, and popped the question when he was home on leave. 'I bought her a diamond cluster ring for ten pounds,' he said. 'It was quite something to save up that amount, because I was only on 14 shillings (70p) a week.' Bill was demobbed in January 1947, and the couple married at St Andrew's Church, Chippenham, on April 5 of that year. 'It's been 60 years' hard labour ever since,' Bill joked. Now Bill and Barbara are proud parents, grandparents, and great grandparents to seven grandchildren aged between one and four. Bill first fell in love with Devon as a 16-year-old boy, when he cycled from Wiltshire to Dartmoor for a youth hostel holiday. 'I bought my mother an enamel saucepan from the ironmongers that used to be in Okehampton, and tied it to the back of the bike to take it home — they were hard to find in those days,' he said. Disaster almost struck when his bike had a puncture, but this was repaired by the blacksmith in Throwleigh. After he and Barbara had married, the couple enjoyed many caravanning holidays at Whiddon Down, and after Bill's retirement, they were finally able to move to Okehampton, where their daughter was already living. The family celebrated with a party, and on April 5 itself Fred took Barbara for a romantic meal: 'I'll probably take her out for a pickled egg,' he chuckled over a glass of champagne.
