A CHANCE encounter has led to love for a couple in Trowbridge 40 years after they first met.

Janet Potter, 54, often made the trip to Wiltshire from her London home to visit an elderly aunt in Colerne, near Chippenham.

Last year they were looking through some old family photographs when Mrs Potter spotted Len Bull, a young man she had met on holiday when he was 17 and she just 13-years-old.

Her aunt mentioned the youthful romance to a friend and was surprised to find that Mr Bull, now 58, was one of her neighbours.

Telephone numbers were soon exchanged and the long-lost swethearts spoke on the phone several times before deciding to meet up in April this year.

Mr Bull was so nervous he drove around the block several times before he got up the courage to go to her aunt's house where Mrs Potter was waiting.

He said: "As soon as I walked into the room I couldn't take my eyes off her. I didn't think she had changed at all. It was like a ghost had come back from the past."

The young couple first met in 1960 when they were on holiday at Butlins, Bognor Regis.

The pair kept in contact for about 18 months after their first meeting but they were young and lived a long way from each other and eventually they lost touch.

Both carried on with their lives, getting married and carving out careers she as a bank manager and he as a self-employed painter and decorator.

By the time they met up again both had split from their previous partners but neither was expecting to find love from their encounter.

Mr Bull said: "If either of us had gone into this being madly in love one could have been very disappointed, luckily we found we both felt the same the old feelings just came flooding back."

Less than 48 hours after that meeting they had decided it was worth giving their relationship another chance.

Mrs Potter said: "I couldn't be happier. I have never felt about anyone the way I feel about him."

In August she left her life in London behind and moved, with Mr Bull, to a new home on the Paxcroft Mead estate in Trowbridge.

Mr Bull said: "I am sure we will go from strength to strength. I look forward to coming home to her each evening."

The pair have discussed marriage and may well be tying the knot at some point in the future.

She said: "The best thing I can say is come back to us this time next year and we will see."