A COUPLE who met at a town centre dance hall are still stepping out together after 50 years of marriage.

Billy and Betty Marley, 73 and 71, of Weardale Street, Spennymoor, celebrated their golden wedding anniversary on Monday with a family party.

The couple met at the Clarence Ballroom, known as The Rink, in Spennymoor, in the early 1950s and on March 28, 1955, they married at Bishop Auckland Register Office.

Mr Marley was a miner at Chilton and Mainsforth Collieries and after a short spell living at Ferryhill Station, the couple moved to Spennymoor.

Mrs Marley worked at Doggarts department store in the town before working with her husband as caretakers at the former North Road School for 18 years before retirement.

Mrs Marley said: "There have been ups and downs and we are still here, together and happy. Our family is important to us, our son Keith and his wife Valerie and our granddaughter Helen, 17.