A DARLINGTON couple are celebrating 50 years of marriage after falling in love in a bakery.

John Appleton, a lifelong baker on Lowson Street met his soon-to-be wife, Rosemary, when she arrived for a job interview at his bakery when the pair were just 19-years-old.

Mr Appleton, now 71, said that Mrs Appleton, also 71, had seen him making cream horns during the interview and they have never looked back.

John explained that he proposed in the traditional way by asking Rosemary’s father for permission first before he popped the question and said she was “over the moon”.

Mr Appleton said: “I think when I proposed to her I didn’t have a ring. I don’t know what our friends will think – they’ll think it’s a ‘well done’.”

The couple were wed on March 25, 1967, not long after turning 20-years-old in the Salvation Army Church by North Lodge Park.

Mr Appleton added: “We weren’t long in getting married – I blame the World Cup.”

The happily-married couple will celebrate their golden wedding anniversary today with a party for family and friends in the Haughton area of Darlington.