A COUPLE was transported back in time today (Friday, March 14) when they celebrated their golden wedding anniversary.

Albert and Val Hughes visited the Tees Transporter Bridge, at Middlesbrough on their landmark day- to many an unlikely setting for romance but the perfect place for the County Durham couple to mark the occasion.

For it was on the bridge’s gondola, crossing the River Tees for a trip to Redcar, that Mr Hughes declared his love and proposed during their first date.

Mr Hughes, 73, said: “I was already besotted and thought ‘in for a penny, in for a pound’ and asked her to marry me.”

Though Mrs Hughes did not accept immediately, because she was just 17, they married two years later at St Mary’s Church, Coxhoe, and settled in Croxdale before moving to Spennymoor, where they have lived for 40 years.

Mr Hughes was an engineer at Tudhoe Colliery, then worked at the Smart and Brown factory, in Spennymoor, before joining the prison service, in Durham, from which he retired.

Mrs Hughes was a dinner lady at King Street Primary School, in Spennymoor, for 20 years.

They have two daughters, Melanie Simpson, of Middlestone Moor, and Tracy Williams, who lives in London, and four granddaughters.

Mrs Hughes, 69, said: “We’ve had ups and downs but always shared everything and cared for each other, we’re friends as well as husband and wife.”

The bridge is currently closed for renovation work but Mr and Mrs Hughes were granted special access for their anniversary and Bridgemaster Alan Murray gave them and their daughters a tour.

Mr Hughes said: “It was fascinating and a place of special memories for us.”