Joan (83) and Bill Webb (82) met when he was on leave from the Fleet Air Arm (the Royal Navy's air force) and visited Leicester with a friend.

Bill said: "I asked my friend what the crumpet was like in Leicester.

"He said there was a girl next door who he didn't get on with but we might suit each other – and we did!"

The couple married on May 1, 1948, and moved to Totternhoe in Bedfordshire, where they lived for the next 25 years and where Bill set up a rubber business in 1959 before settling in Whaplode Drove in 1973.

They have four children and five grandchildren, and three of the children still work for Bill's rubber business.

Two of them still work in the same workshop where their father started.

Joan said the family is very close and they celebrated the big day with a quiet party for their nearest and dearest.

The couple love their garden and their children reorganised it for them.

And they have a secret for any younger readers who want their relationship to last as long.

Joan said: "I think we both know each other's faults and we put up with them and we try to keep a sense of humour."