Love is definitely in the air in Sutton and Langley with five golden couples celebrating their 50th wedding anniversaries this year.
Barry and Mary McQuinn, Barbara and Harry Jones, Alan and Brenda Chapman, and Michael and Mary Lafferty, who all attend Langley Methodist Church, married their sweethearts in 1963. Friends from Sutton, Trevor and Kath Bayley, also married in the same year. The couples have 250 years of married life between them.
Barry, 72 and Mary, 70, who live on Trinity Lane in Sutton, were the first to spot the connection between the friends.
They married on August 31 at Doveholes Methodist Church, near Buxton, but moved to Sutton when they both got jobs at Macclesfield’s former ICI factory, now AstraZeneca.
Great-grandfather-of-one Barry said: “There must be something in the air! We all married at different churches in different places, but we think it’s pretty special there are so many in such a small community.
“Once one of us mentioned it was their golden wedding anniversary, someone else said it was theirs too, and before we knew it we were adding them all up.”
Barbara 74, and Harry, 81, of Selwyn Drive in Sutton, were the first to celebrate their anniversary on March 30, taking a cruise to Amsterdam to celebrate. They met and married in Littleborough. Grandfather of three Harry, who has lived in Sutton for 43 years, said: “The secret is working at it.”
Alan, 72, and Brenda, 73, who also live on Selwyn Drive, Sutton, will celebrate their anniversary on Saturday, September 7.
They married in Southall, Middlesex, after being introduced through their church and have two children and two grandchildren.
Alan said: “You don’t think about reaching 50 years when you are first married, we were too busy buying houses and raising a family. Now we look back and can’t quite believe time has gone so quickly.”
Michael and Mary Lafferty, of Main Road in Langley, will be the last to celebrate on December 7.
Mary, 69, who is mum to former Macclesfield Express editor Dave Lafferty and Catherine, said she fell for Michael, 82, when they met dancing at The Crystal near to her home town of Stoke.
She said: “I’d say it was love at first sight. He was very handsome, and he was the only boy that I met who had a car – it was a red Austin A40 – I remember it very well. It was before the days of telephones so we used to arrange to meet and he would pick me up in his car.”
Trevor and Kath Bayley share the same anniversary as Barry and Mary McQuinn, marrying at Sutton St James on August 31.
Trevor, 74, and Kath, 71, of Hall Lane, Sutton, who have two daughters and six grandchildren, are on holiday in Majorca where they will spend their anniversary.
They said: “We are proud to reach this landmark and hope to carry on for a few more years.”
