IT wasn’t a childhood romance. In fact when Jeremy Burge, from Alexandra Road, Minehead, and Betty James from Quarry Close, Alcombe, were classmates at Minehead Junior School, conversation rarely got beyond “Hello” and “Goodbye.”

It was much the same when the pair moved into the same class at what was then Minehead Secondary Modern school and when Betty left at 15 and Jeremy at 16, that would seem to be the end of the story.

In fact it was only the beginning - proved pretty conclusively last Saturday when around 50 family and friends gathered at the house in Summerland Avenue, Minehead where the couple have lived for 58 years, to toast their 60th wedding anniversary.

They married on September 3, 1966, at Williton when Betty was 22 and Jeremy 23. The reception was at Minehead’s Kildare Lodge and their honeymoon was spent in Portsmouth.

Now a still active 82 and 83, Betty and Jeremy said they were both surprised and delighted by Saturday’s packed house for their diamond wedding celebrations which had been arranged by their son and daughter.

“It was an absolutely wonderful day and we saw friends we hadn’t seen for years,” Betty said. “We have a lovely family and we know a lot of really great people. We have been very lucky.”

The St John’s Ambulance Brigade was the unlikely catalyst that brought Betty and Jeremy together. Both had joined the local branch which provided trained medical volunteers for public events and when Jeremy became an ambulance driver Betty was his assigned nurse.

They attended local events like motor-cycle scrambles and point-to-point races and, as Betty put it, “things went on from there.”

The newly-married couple lived in Queen’s Road, Minehead, before buying the house in Summerland Avenue which was in dire need of renovation. “We slept downstairs while we did up the bedrooms and then moved upstairs while we tackled the rest,” Betty said. “It was in a dreadful state.

“Later we ran a bed and breakfast business for 15 years. We catered for holidaymakers and it was a really happy time.”

A skilled mechanic, Jeremy worked for the Premier Garage in Alcombe, Gliddons at Williton and later in Taunton, Bristol and Yeovil. He was also secretary of Minehead Social Club for over 20 years.

Betty liked to keep busy. As well as bringing up a family, she worked for many years at a grocery store in Alcombe and later for Mencap in Minehead,

The couple have two children, Keith and Linda, and three grandchildren, James, William and Freddie.

Had Betty any recipe for a long and happy marriage? “We just go with the flow and enjoy getting out and about while we still can. Minehead has changed a lot and not always for the good, but the countryside remains beautiful and we still enjoy going out to somewhere like Horner for a cream tea.”

She added with a smile: “I think that ‘plod on’ is the best advice I can give.”