TEENAGE love can and does survive as the 50-year marriage of Grace and Graham Parsons from Ogbourne St Andrew proves.

The pair were teenage sweethearts, married at 19 and tomorrow (Friday) they celebrate their golden wedding.

They will be having a family party with their six daughters and one son, 19 grandchildren and two great grandchildren.

The pair originated from Bristol where they married at St Matthew's Church in Kingsdown in 1953.

They moved to Wiltshire in 1957 to farm at Chitterne in the west of county and they have lived here ever since.

From Chitterne they moved to Everleigh before moving to the Marlborough area to farm at

Ogbourne St Andrew.

Mr Parsons has always been a keen shepherd and kept dogs all his life. In 1963 he won the English national sheepdog trails.

Later he opened a small builders' merchants, GG Burrows, in Marlborough before going to work for the housing department at Kennet

District Council.

Ill health forced him to take early retirement at 63 years of age.

Mr Parsons served a term as a town councillor in Marlborough and was an Ogbourne St Andrew parish councillor for 17 years.

He was a leading member of Marlborough Lions Club for many years, serving for two years as its president, with Mrs Parsons joining in many of the activities.

Mr Parsons is a member of the Lodge of Loyalty in Marlborough.

In his younger day he ran the Ludgershall under-16s football team for ten years, during the last four years of which they did not lose one game.

Mrs Parsons devoted her life to bringing up her family of seven children.