A COUPLE who first met as teenagers on a youth club trip to Blackpool are celebrating 50 years of happy marriage.

Linda and Tony Bennett of Dalton Bank marked their anniversary on Saturday with a family party.

Tony, 69, explained how he met the love of his life at Warrington Boys’ Club when he was 17: “We met on a trip with the club to Blackpool. We just got chatting when we came back on the coach home and arranged to meet up again.”

Three years later, the pair married at St Peter’s Church off Battersby Lane.

Tony went on to work at Rylands-Whitecross steel works while Linda raised their two children.

The couple now have five grandchildren and two great grandchildren to keep them busy and Tony said: "We like to go on holiday together on trips down south.

“At the moment our favourite place is Torquay and we used to go to Newquay.

“We like having all the family around us. I like my fishing and Linda enjoys bingo.

"My advice for young couples is that obviously you have to work at marriage, when you have an argument sometimes you have to let it go over your head. You will argue but you have to sit down together and work around things.”