TWO couples who shared a wedding ceremony 50 years ago are together again this weekend for an anniversary party.

Joe and Joyce Freeman were married with her brother, George Gittins, and his wife, Marjorie, in St Andrew's Church, Spennymoor, on March 3, 1956.

Mr Freeman met his wife at the Rink dance hall. She worked at the Siemens factory but gave up her job to look after their five children - Lynn Newby, Geoff, Lesley, who died from cancer at the age of 40, Alan and Beverley Eason.

Mr Freeman worked at Tudhoe Drift mine. He is a member of the British Legion Club, in Spennymoor, where the anniversary party is taking place. The couple live in Cedar Court, Spennymoor.

Mrs Freeman worked in the kitchens of the Bridge Hotel, at Croxdale.

She said: "We are a very close family and the grandchildren are all at our house a lot. All the family are very important to us."

She was presented with a bouquet yesterday by the mayor of Sedgefield, Councillor Jackie Piggott.