A peal of bells will ring in Gargrave on Sunday to celebrate the 90th birthday of Connie Percy.

Connie, who lives in Riversway, in the village, was born on the longest day of the year in 1920 in Leeds.

As a young woman, she joined the Auxiliary Territorial Service. It was while working in Newcastle she met her future husband, George, from Hellifield, who had served in the Army in Ceylon before coming back to England and being sent to the North East.

Connie said they were fated to meet as she discovered George’s older sister lived just a few minutes’ walk away from her parents’ house in Leeds – which made their courting easier.

The couple married in 1947 in Holy Trinity Church, Moor Lane, Leeds, and came to live at Peel Terrace, in Hellifield, for a few months before renting rooms in a house in Skipton near the Girls’ High School.

After a year they moved to Swire Croft, in Gargrave, before moving to Riversway around 45 years ago.

George was a civil engineer with the council while Connie brought up their two sons, Howard, who lives with wife Pauline and children Heather and Simon in Pickering, and Malcolm who lives with wife Judith and daughter Hannah, in Manchester.

Connie enjoyed dancing as well as the Mothers’ Union group, the PTA and the baby clinic, in Gargrave. Later she helped with the family planning group in Skipton for many years.

Her husband died about 20 years ago, but Connie still enjoys visits by friends and pottering about in her garden.

On Saturday, the family is having a celebratory lunch.