WHEN Peter Prescott was evacuated during the Second World War he never expected to find the love of his life.

As a teen he was evacuated from Dover to Ebbw Vale in the Welsh Valleys in 1941.

His train should have ended up in the Welsh town of Caerleon but was rerouted to Ebbw Vale by mistake.

The mix-up proved a stroke of luck for Mr Prescott because the following year he met Barbara Leighton, whose father was working at the town’s steelworks.

On Sunday, the couple, who have lived in Manor Drive, Horspath, since 1982, celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary. Recalling their meetings, Mr Prescott, 85, said: “We held hands and went for walks but it wasn’t intense — we were just good friends.”

Mr Prescott went on to study at Goldsmiths College in Nottingham to train as a teacher, while Barbara went to Manchester University to read biology, before working at St Mary’s Hospital in London.

They moved to Oxford in 1963 after Mr Prescott got a job at East Oxford Secondary, which later became Isis Middle School.

They have six grandchildren, three step grandchildren and one step great-grandchild.

Mrs Prescott, 82, said: “I don’t know where the time has gone. Tolerance and a goodnight kiss is how we have stayed together so long.”