TWO lifelong Tavistock residents celebrated their diamond wedding anniversary with close friends and family at the location where they married 60 years ago.

Joan and Hugh Hodge celebrated the milestone at the Ordulph Arms in Tavistock on Thursday thanks to a surprise party arranged by Joan's friend, Heather Thomas, and fellow member of Tavistock Ladies' Gardening Club

Joan, 79, and Hugh, 84, were married at the town's former register and council offices — now the Ordulph Arms — in 1949.

They married at the register office so they could save money for their first property, a cottage at Westbridge, where they lived until they started a family.

As Hugh was a carpenter they bought a site at Abbotsfield where he spent two and a half years building their next house all by himself. They lived there for 12 years until they bought an old-fashioned bungalow on Old Exeter Road and turned it into a modern four-bedroomed house. They then bought their current home at Mohuns Close.

Both have always lived in Tavistock, and met in 1946 during the town's Goose Fair.

Joan said their first meeting did not feature the usual kind of romantic gesture: 'Hugh had been demobbed from the Navy that day so he went to Goose Fair with his friend Roy and it was his friend that was eyeing me and my friend up.

'Roy said to Hugh that they "must find out who those girls are", but as they had been at the fair all day they had spent all their money — so they came over and asked us if we wanted to go on the Ben Hur ride with them but could they borrow ten shillings to go on it with us, which we did.'

After that day Joan and Hugh went on many more dates and by the age of 17 Joan was engaged. When she was 19 and Hugh was 24 they were married.

They have two children Deborah and Neil, and three grandchildren Lyndsay, Madeleine and Oliver.

Joan said: 'We are still on cloud nine at the moment. Heather Thomas organised the do — she was the power behind it all.

'Everyone was absolutely delighted with the whole event. Lots of our friends were there — people we have met over the years.

'For the last 17 years of our working life we both worked in the housing department for Plymouth City Council, which was one of the happiest times for us.

Heather Thomas, a member of Tavistock Ladies' Gardening Club who made the cake, said: 'They had an absolutely fantastic time. The Ordulph really pulled out all the stops. Joan is the chairman of Tavistock Ladies' Gardening Club and there are 105 members so she is very well thought of in the community.'