WHEN Joe and Doreen Chubb tied the knot 70 years ago, Anthony Eden was in Number 10, Harry Truman was in the White House and Mick Jagger was in nappies.

Now the Beaminster pair, who are 93 and 91 respectively, have marked their platinum anniversary and will have a huge party on Saturday to celebrate.

Doreen said: “We’re just happy. We’ve had a wonderful life and have a lovely family.

“We’ve worked hard all through our lives – Joe didn’t stop working until he was 87.

“We don’t know much about the party on Saturday. It’s the family that are organising everything.

“There’s 40 of us in our immediate family. That includes 16 great grandchildren and five step-great grandchildren.

“Everybody is friends with everybody and gets on together.”

The pair first met in 1945 when Joe was best man and Doreen was a bridesmaid at the wedding of a mutual friend in Sunderland. 

At the time, Joe was serving in the RAF as a navigator, initially going up in bombers but later, after a spell of sickness, training officers in the art of navigation.

Doreen was working as a seamstress, making uniforms for soldiers.

After Joe was decommissioned in early 1946, he returned to his family’s farm at Salway Ash, nearly 300 miles away from Doreen.

They bridged this gap by writing to each other multiple times a week, but only met four times before their marriage.

On October 19, 1946, exactly a year after they first laid eyes on each other, they had their own nuptials in Sunderland.

Doreen said: “We knew it was right from the off. We were so far apart, writing letters was the only remedy really. I came from the city to the country to be a country girl.”

After a honeymoon in Southampton, they set up home at Higher Ford Farm where they stayed until five years ago when they moved to Culverhayes.

Their son-in-law George Rendell added: “Joe was a very successful dairy farmer and Doreen a very accomplished home maker where her skills in baking and needlework were put to great use.

“She still busies herself with knitting, sewing and baking and she walks regularly to town to do the shopping.

“Joe maintains the garden and has a wonderful show of roses for passers-by to admire.

“No doubt Doreen will be out on the dance floor on Saturday.

“They are a marvellous couple really. They would say that they have never had a row – and they might be right.

“Doreen particularly is still very fit. She walks regularly from their house to the middle of Beaminster, which must be around a mile.”