TWO couples came together to celebrate a combined 110 years of marriage, and were presented with flowers to mark their respective golden and diamond wedding anniversaries.

The commemorations were held on Wednesday (April 3) for golden couple John and Brenda Ridley’s 50th wedding anniversary, and they were joined by fellow churchgoers Peter and Nan Way (correct), who celebrated 60 years of marriage back in January.

The festivities took place at St James’ Church, in Darlington, and brought back happy memories of the couples’ wedding days.

The Ridleys were married at St Cuthbert’s Church on April 3, 1963 and Mr Ridley, 78, said: “I remember it was a lovely, bright sunny day.”

He is a church warden at St James’, but the celebrations still came as a pleasant surprise.

He added: “It was wonderful, there were all sorts of things I can’t describe, if I said there were a dozen cards I would probably be underestimating, and Brenda had made a beautiful cake.”

The celebrations were belated for Mr and Mrs Way, who live near Heighington.

They were married at St Mary's Church, in Richmond, and marked their diamond wedding on January 5.

It was a low-key celebration as Mrs Way was ill at the time, but she was well enough to join in Wednesday's celebration at St James' with her husband and Mr and Mrs Ridley.

Mr Way is a former sports editor of the Darlington and Stockton Times, sister paper of The Northern Echo.

St James' made headlines last year when many of its congregation left to join the Ordinariate, a structure within the Roman Catholic Church that allows former Anglicans to join, but retain elements of their Anglican tradition.

It recovered from that setback, with its recent Easter fair was a great success, raising almost £1,400 in just a day.