15221/4GAZETTE & HERALD: The demolition of the former Goldiggers nightclub and Gaumont cinema building has brought back poignant memories for one couple who went on their first date to the cinema in 1946.

Cyril and Iris Cooper, who now live in Calne, went to see a film at the Timber Street cinema in Chippenham just before Christmas on a Monday after Mr Cooper first spotted his wife-to-be in a pub just two days before that.

Now the Coopers are just two years short of their diamond wedding anniversary and the spectacle of the old building's destruction has upset them both.

"It is very sad," said Mr Cooper, 79, of Baydon Grove. "Everything is going. The pub where we first met has gone. Chippenham just isn't the same any more."

Mr Cooper was a member of the 2nd Independent Parachute Regiment posted in the Middle East and he was given leave just before Christmas 1946.

He went out to the Bridgehouse pub in Chippenham with a friend one Saturday night, when he saw the woman who was to be his wife.

"I saw this super young lady. I kept looking at her, but I went outside and when I returned she had gone," he said.

By chance he bumped into her again that night at another pub and worked up the courage to speak with her.

"I was carrying a great coat, so I went up to her and asked her if she would look after it for me and I asked if she would like a drink," he said. "We soon started chatting and I walked her home."

On the Monday the couple met up at the Gaumont and watched a film together, though Mr Cooper couldn't remember what film it was. They were married on April 16 1947 at the Chippenham Register Office and have spent many happy years together.

Now they have six children, 27 grandchildren and 16 great grandchildren.

The couple's association with the cinema continued for many years and in one star turn Mr Cooper did his Norman Wisdom impression on stage at the cinema to advertise a forthcoming Norman Wisdom film.

"We are absolutely shattered they are pulling the building down," said Mr Cooper. "It really is sad."