BORN and bred in Swindon, Marilyn and Frederick Culley are celebrating half a century of marriage.

Fred, 79 and Marilyn, 71, met at the town's Duke of Edinburgh pub. Three-and-a-half years later on September 20 they met at the altar in Christ Church in front of a huge congregation.

Marilyn explained: "We had a wonderful wedding, lots of people turned up and we had the choir boys singing hymns. After the wedding we had a marvellous honeymoon we borrowed a friend's Daimler and toured around the West Country."

At the time, Marilyn was working in a hardware store in Cricklade Road while Fred, having been trained as a vehicle mechanic, repaired bicycles for Western Cycles.

Later on Fred worked for Thamesdown Transport maintaining the firm's fleet of buses.

Now the couple are retired and enjoying life to the full.

Marilyn enjoys looking after their grandchildren as well as reading a good novel, while Fred builds wooden model sailing ships. They also enjoy travelling and recently spent three weeks in Torquay.

Marilyn said: "I think the secret to a long marriage is obviously a bit of give and take, but also a lot of trust, although Fred thinks I probably take more than I give. He is the only man I know who would give me his sealed pay cheque each month; I don't know why he did it, but I know I could always trust him."