A YORK couple have already celebrated their golden wedding on Australia's Gold Coast.

But Cyril and Amy Parkin-Coates, from Chudleigh Road, off Leeman Road, will next week have a family party at home to mark their special day today.

The couple were married at St Barnabas Church in Leeman Road on June 17 1950.

They knew each other from their days at Poppleton Road School, then got together again in their late teens.

Mr Parkin-Coates came from between Leeman Road and Poppleton Road, and Mrs Parkin-Coates from Leeman Road. Apart from a period Mr Parkin-Coates spent as a "Bevin Boy" working at Frickley Colliery from 1943, and about four years shortly after they were married, the couple have always lived in the area.

Mr Parkin-Coates started his working life as a cabinet maker, then worked as a joiner up until his retirement. Mrs Parkin-Coates worked at Rowntree, then had her twin sons, Peter and Paul, and gained a new full-time occupation.

He enjoys beer and wine making, and keeping goldfish in his two ponds, and she enjoys cake icing - she will be doing her own for their family celebration on Wednesday - plus knitting, crocheting and sewing.

They also like to travel, and have been to Australia five times to visit Mrs Parkin-Coates's sister, Nora Hayden, on the Gold Coast in Queensland.

Their last trip lasted five months - it was meant to be three months including Christmas, but they stayed until April to avoid the flu epidemic back home.

Mrs Parkin-Coates said the holiday was a golden wedding celebration, and her sister gave them a surprise party and barbecue just before they left.

Asked the secret of their lengthy marriage she said: "We fall in with each other - we don't fall out much.

"We just carry on from day to day, and everything falls in line."