Easingwold couple Albert and Dorothy Hutchinson were due to have a family get-together tonight to celebrate their diamond wedding.

Though Mr Hutchinson, 80, and his 78-year-old wife met in her home village of Coxwold, near Ampleforth, Mr Hutchinson was originally from Penrith in Cumbria.

He moved to Yorkshire when his father became a gamekeeper on the Newburgh estate and they lived at Oulston.

Mrs Hutchinson had worked in Coxwold, looking after the houses of a woman and a vicar, and the couple married in the village church and lived in Oulston.

Mr Hutchinson worked for a farmer in Crayke, and then worked on two farms in Easingwold - Rising Sun Farm and Lund Farm - for the same employer for a total of 34-and-a-half years, before retiring and moving to the couple's present home at Croft Close in the town 15 years ago.

They have three sons and two daughters, 13 grandchildren and 12 great grandchildren.

Asked what the secret of a long and successful marriage was, Mr Hutchinson said it was coping with life's "ups and downs".