NEVER a cross word in 60 years - that’s the secret for one couple who will celebrate their diamond wedding anniversary tomorrow.

Tot and Doreen Wardle, of Harome, met through a friend after Doreen, 82, became a messenger for her friend and Tot. One day, Doreen decided to deliver the message to Tot by hand and a couple of months later, on March 27, 1954, they were married in St Andrew’s Church, Middleton, near Pickering.

“I always tell people we have been married for 60 years and never had a wrong word - because I can’t get one in,” said Doreen. “It doesn’t feel like 60 years, but you just stick together. It is about living together and just taking life as it comes. We are thankful for each day.”

The couple honeymooned in Scotland before moving back to Ryedale, Doreen living in Wrelton and Tot, now 87, in Harome, so that they could qualify for a house in Harome.

Shortly after they moved in to their first home, which they named Hoower Hoose, meaning Our House, they had their first child, Heather, who Doreen said was a honeymoon baby. They also have four sons - John, Richard, David and Timothy, and another two more daughters, Christine and Gillian. Doreen said that having a large family kept her busy, while Tot was an agricultural contractor and then a soldier in the Army, based in York. Tot and Doreen also have 12 grandchildren aged from 12 to 36 and two great grandsons, one of who is four and the other who is six months old.

The couple like to spend their time playing whist, dominoes and bingo and Doreen is a keen writer and somewhat of an expert on traditional Yorkshire dialect, which she gives talks about.

The couple plan to celebrate with their family with a lunch out at the Fox and Hounds Country Inn.