A couple with strong connections to Kingsbridge have celebrated their 70th anniversary.

Mary Williams (nee Donovan) was born in Kingsbridge and her husband Rod Williams was born in Paignton.

The couple now live in Radlett in Hertfordshire where they have been for 66 years but Mary says she does miss Kingsbridge: “It’s still not Devon.

“Devon is home.

“I miss the sea and the Estuary.

“I like the water and we used to like to go down to the coast to Salcombe, Plymouth and Torquay but we don’t get to do it now because my husband isn’t very fit so the journey is a bit too much.”

They both went to Kingsbridge Grammar School were members of the church choir and an article about the happy day appeared in the Gazette in 1955.

The couple tied the knot at St Edmund’s Church in Kingsbridge and were married by the Reverend J O Ellis.

Mary was given away by her father.

The bride wore white lace over satin and tulle with a coronet of orange blossom and she wore a shoulder-length veil.

Her bouquet was of deep cream roses and orchids.

The bridesmades were Mary’s sister Margaret Donovan and her friend Janet Foale who wore cyclamen-pink taffeta with floral head dressesand carries baskets of mixed flowers.

The bride’s mother wore a peach and black two-piece suit with black accessories.

The reception was held at the Albion Hotel.

Mary remembers: “I was at the Girls Grammar School and he was at the Boys and he was a border in what is now the museum of course.”

She has this advice to achieve a long and happy marriage: “Give and take.

“You’re bound to have some differences of opinion but provided you talk it over, it all gets sorted out in the end.”