A COUPLE who eyed each other up across supermarket aisles will celebrate half a century of marriage today.

Romance blossomed from behind the till for Patricia Clapton, who met her husband at the Co-op in Rose Hill where she worked as a sales assistant.

The then-19-year-old was courted by Brian Clapton, one year her junior, who delivered groceries to the Oxford store once a week.

She said: "I don't think I knew what love was. I just had an affection for him and over the years it has grown.

"He is a really nice, kind and generous man. I wouldn't swap him for anyone."

The 74-year-old has lived in the same home in Abingdon's Farm Road for the entire 50 years since their wedding on August 27, 1966.

Mr Clapton, 73, joked that she "pestered" him for a date, adding: "It just carried on from there. We were courting for years. We took our time.

"She was a lovely, quiet girl and she's got a good heart."

They spent their first date at Cowley Speedway and their second at the cinema, where they watched sixties hit The Music Man.

Mrs Clapton, who was living with an aunt in Rose Hill after the death of her mother, regularly went round to his family home in Weirs Lane for cooking and company.

She said: "She died quite young and my father and brothers were in Windsor where I grew up. I often went round for dinner. I was half living there."

They wed in a traditional ceremony at St Edmund and St Frideswide Church in Iffley Road, after deciding to spend the rest of their lives together.

Mr Clapton said: "I never proposed. We took it for granted that we wanted to get married.

"I always laugh because six months later the vicar quit the church to work in a pub. I said it was a bad sign."

They sacrificed a honeymoon so they could scrimp for a deposit on their marital home, which they still share with their two children, 46-year-old Leigh Clapton and 44-year-old Marie Clapton.

The couple never had a desire to go abroad but used to enjoy family holidays to the seaside. They will travel to Mrs Clapton's hometown Windsor today to mark their golden anniversary.

They enjoy spending time together tending to their impressive garden, which is brimming with colourful blooms, and settling on the sofa to watch old films.

Sports fan Mr Clapton, who spent his working life at the BMW factory in Cowley before taking part-time work at Tesco and a cleaning company, advised newlyweds to "stick to their vows" to secure a long-lasting marriage.

He added: "You have to stick with it and be faithful and forgiving."