Well-known Chesterfield couple celebrate 70th wedding anniversary with some Instagram likes

Platinum pair Geoff and Joyce Orton marked the milestone on Wednesday, July 29 when friends and family visited to enjoy an outside get-together.

The couple, who were keen walkers and popular faces at Calow Congregational Church, said they were ‘delighted’ when pictures of their celebration received plenty of likes on Instagram and Facebook.

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Geoff, 93, said their secret to a successful marriage was simple.

"It is because she loves me and looks after me, and I love her and look after her,” he said.

"We have always done everything together and I think that is the key to it.”

Geoff admits that when he first met Joyce, as a teenager, he ‘didn’t like her very much!’. However, a couple of years later they were ‘set up’ together by friends and ended up going to the cinema on Easter Saturday, 1945.

They have never looked back and after Geoff had completed his Army service in Egypt, Kenya and the former Somaliland, they tied the knot at Calow Church in 1950.

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Geoff and Joyce, who now live in Spital, have two children, John and Anne, four grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.

Geoff worked on the buses for many years as a conductor and driver before working in the offices at the former Markham Works.

Joyce also worked on the buses for a period and had sales jobs at Lewis’ in Chesterfield Market Hall and at Hudson’s record shop.

Geoff said: “The church always took up a lot of our time. I was a lay preacher for 50 years and church secretary for 42 years, while Joyce was a Sunday school teacher for many years.”

The couple were keen walkers, particularly around Derbyshire’s beauty spots, and they have visited Anne in South Africa, where she now lives, on several occasions.

"The virus meant the anniversary day wasn’t quite the same,” Geoff said. “But we had tables outside and so many people came along to say congratulations. It was a very nice day.”

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