A GRASSINGTON couple whose romance flourished by letter have celebrated 60 years of marriage.

Syd and Loretta Procter met each other when Mrs Procter, a Bradford girl, was over in the Dales marshalling a cycling event at Town End.

She and her friend got talking to a group of local lads - including her future husband, who was home on leave from the Royal Marines.

The teenagers exchanged addresses and kept in touch after Mr Procter went back to Iceland - sending letters as regularly as once a day. They got engaged a year later when he returned home on VJ Day - August 15, 1945.

His service had also included time in Egypt, Libya, South Africa and Sicily while Mrs Procter spent the war years working as a stator winder for English Electric.

The couple married in the bride's hometown and spent their honeymoon in Scarborough.

Their first home in Grassington was a cottage on Main Street and they moved into their current home on Hardy Meadows in 1955.

Mr Procter started work as a plasterer for Patrick's building firm in 1951 and worked there until he retired.

His wife brought up their two sons, Keith and Mark and then worked as a dinnertime supervisor at Grassington Primary School for 16 years.

Mr Procter was on the committee of Grassington Football Club for more than 20 years while his wife has helped out with scouts and brownies.

The couple, who have seven grandchildren and four great-grandchildren, have built up a close network of friends - many of them younger - in the village.

They have an active social life which includes quiz nights and jazz evenings and they keep fit by walking every morning.

Mr and Mrs Procter celebrated 60 years of marriage last Thursday and held a number of celebrations with family and friends.

They also went away to Falmouth and holidayed in Algarve earlier in the year.

Mrs Procter said: "We've had a super married life."

She added that "tolerance, love and laughter" had been the recipe for their long marriage.