A COUPLE celebrated their platinum wedding anniversary in the same church 70 years to the day since they tied the knot.

Bill and Marie Charlesworth from Iffley, Oxford, celebrated their anniversary on Saturday with the service at Greyfriars Church in Iffley Road.

Mrs Charlesworth said: “It was lovely. I used to go to Mass there as a child and I remember the friary being built.”

They were wed in 1941 shortly before Mr Charlesworth, a carpenter in the RAF, left to serve in Africa.

Mrs Charlesworth, 90, said: “Bill was stationed at Kidlington and I was introduced to him in Oxford, where I lived. A few months later we were married.”

Mr Charlesworth served in Africa for three-and-a-half years and at the end of the war returned to RAF Benson,where he and his wife lived for a time.

In order to be able to afford a house of their own, they moved to his home town of Barrow-in-Furness in Cumbria.

They lived there for 50 years, with Mr Charlesworth working as a carpenter and joiner and Mrs Charlesworth as a housewife. They returned to Oxford last year.

Mrs Charlesworth, nee Trinder, said: “We loved our life in Barrow, but it is nice to be back.”

They have two children, Ann and Marie, and four grandchildren, Paul, Jane, Adam and Nick. Jane is expecting the couple’s first great-grandchild.

Mrs Charlesworth said: “We have been very happy, we still are. I can’t imagine being with anyone else.”

Mr Charlesworth, 93, said: “We have had our ups and downs, but we wouldn’t have been together if we weren’t happy.”

rpope@oxfordmail.co.uk