Childhood sweethearts are a golden couple

Twenty-one years later the childhood sweethearts were married – and now they have celebrated their golden wedding.

Mr Hinchcliffe first saw Marlene Thewlis when they were 14 and he passed her on the school bus to Mirfield.

“Then I saw her at an inter-school sports day. I asked her out and that was it,” said Mr Hinchcliffe.

The couple were married seven years later at St John’s Church, Upper Hopton, on Mr Hinchcliffe’s 21st birthday.

Mr Hinchcliffe trained as an apprentice hairdresser and Mrs Hinchcliffe worked in Mirfield shoe shop Mansfield’s. The couple then opened a hairdressers in Huddersfield which is still in business today.

The couple lived in Northgate, Upper Hopton, for four years before moving to Gregory Springs Mount, Lower Hopton.

They had two children, Russell and Tracy, and have four grandchildren.

Mrs Hinchcliffe said: “We are very close with the family. We’ve had lots of support in our lives from our parents and our children.”

The couple treated the family to a short break in Whitby to celebrate their 50 years of marriage.

Mrs Hinchcliffe said: “If there’s a secret I think it’s about patience and sense of humour – don’t let the little things become big things.”

The pair enjoy travelling together and have been as far afield as Kenya, South Africa and Thailand.

“Stuart always looks out for me,” said Mrs Hinchcliffe. “I always know I come first. And he can still make me laugh.”

Mr Hinchcliffe added: “We get on with each other – we don’t row. She’s not so bad for putting up with me!”