Village pair mark their diamond day
Posted on November 11, 2008
Filed Under News | 1 Comment
Repost from: This is Wiltshire
Link to Article: http://www.thisiswiltshire.co.uk/news/headlines/3804827.Village_pair_mark_their_diamond_day/
After 60 years of marriage, Pat and George Heath can look back on a lifetime of service in the community of Urchfont.
Although Mr Heath, 83, was born in the village, Mrs Heath, four years his junior, was born about half a mile away.
“But I think they have accepted her now,” joked Mr Heath in the living room of the thatched cottage that has been the couple’s home for the last half century.
Mr Heath remembers the appalling conditions that farmers had to labour under during the 1930s and things were little better in 1948 when he and Mrs Heath wanted to get married.
Mrs Heath said: “The vicar, the Rev Lionel Dashwood Golding, just had one question for us. How are you going to manage on a farm worker’s wages?
“We didn’t know, but we did manage and we brought up a family.”
Because she was just 19, Mrs Heath had to get permission to marrry from her parents.
Mr and Mrs Heath had known each other slightly at school in Urchfont but became close when they worked together on the Snooks’ farm.
After they were married they lived firstly at Hales Farm, then a house at Townsend before moving into Cuckoo Cottage where they still live.
They soon became known as the people you ask if you want anything done.
Both served on Urchfont Parish Council and were caretakers at the village hall for many years.
Mrs Heath helped with the Urchfont Brownies for 34 years and was Urchfont’s correspondent for the Gazette and Herald for 26 years, one of the paper’s longest serving correspondents.
When the school was desperate to get a cleaner she stepped into the breach and worked closely with children with special educational needs.
Mr Heath has been a bell ringer at St Michael’s Church for most of his life and took over the handbell ringing group.
He even started up a handbell group at West Lavington when he was asked to do so.
Mrs Heath has also been a bell ringer and was the first woman at the church to ring a quarter peal.
They have seen quite a number of changes in the village over the years. Mr Heath said: “With all the new housing that’s been built, there are no gardens or orchards left.
“Years ago there was no need to go out of the village. There was everything you needed and regular deliveries of coal, fish and other things.”
The couple will renew their marriage vows at St Michael’s Church tomorrow when three of Mrs Heath’s bridesmaids will be in attendance. They have also invited many of their village friends to a reception at the village hall.
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