Favourite takeaway on the cards for Derbyshire couple celebrating 65th wedding anniversary

Last year John and Pat Bradley tucked into the takeaway favourite on their wedding anniversary.

And a fish supper was on the cards for the couple when they celebrated their sapphire anniversary last week.

The couple were accompanied to Chesters restaurant in Chesterfield by John’s brother Alan, who was best man at their wedding, one of their bridesmaids, Mary, who was three when they tied the knot, and their neighbours Howard Cramp and Fiona Helliwell.

Pat said: “It was lovely. I had a fish pie and John had fish and chips.

"During the day we had lots of phone calls, a card from the Queen and got two bouquets of flowers.”

Long-lasting marriages are something of a tradition in their family, with both John and Pat’s parents celebrating diamond wedding anniversaries.

The couple have a son Andrew, had another son Philip who died in 2014, and have granddaughters Leah and Roberta and grandson Ben.

Asked about the secret for a long and happy marriage, Pat said: "You get over the ups and downs and rely on each other when you need to. We've had our rows, but one thing we've never fallen out about is money. To begin with, we hadn't got enough and when we had enough we didn't need to argue.”

John and Pat met at a dance when they were in their early 20s. Pat said: "I was a great dancer. There were about five dances in Chesterfield centre – we used to go one at the Odeon and one at the Victoria. My mum and dad, Beatrice and William Radford, were dancers and used to organise dances in the congregational church at Brimington.”

The couple tied the knot at Duckmanton Church and went to York for their honeymoon, where they stayed in a hotel called The Spotted Cow. Pat said: "When we arrived there was a darts and dominoes night and they weren't serving dinner. We were hungry because we hadn't eaten anything since the reception. We spent ages wandering around looking for the chippy that we could smell!"

Pat and John spent the first four years of married life living with her mum and dad at Duckmanton before moving into Middleton Drive, Inkersall, which has been their home ever since.

An only child, Pat was born at Church Warsop but moved to Duckmanton at the age of four when her father landed a job at Markham Colliery.

On leaving Bolsover Girls School, Pat studied a nursery nurse course at Violet Markham school and travelled to London for two days of exams, which she passed. Pat said: "A lot of the girls wanted to be nannies, but I didn't want to be. I was very fortunate, I got a nursery assistant job at Staveley Church Infants School, which had a nursery class. Then I got another nursery assistant job at Poolsbrook in 1970.

"I always wanted to be a teacher so in 1974 I went to college in Retford to do three years' teacher training. I did a lot of supply work, a full term at Poolsbrook as a teacher, a term at New Bolsover Primary School and a term at Clay Cross Junior School. I worked at Shirebrook Junior School from 1980 to 1984 and then moved to Barrow Hill Primary School where I taught until I retired in 1997."

John, who was one of seven children, was born and bred in Chesterfield. He was employed as a long-distance lorry driver when he met Pat but within months had found a new job at the Tube Works. In 1963 John was taken on as an ambulance driver at Markham Colliery and later moved to the health service's county ambulances where he worked as an attendant until he retired in 1993.

The couple love going to the seaside and are regular visitors to Scarborough where they hire a chalet during the daytime and stay overnight in a hotel on the North Bay.

John's hobbies are playing golf and b

bowls while Pat is an avid reader.