Wigan couple celebrate their 70th wedding anniversary!

John and Nora Wilkinson wed on July 1 1950 and so have this week enjoyed their platinum anniversary.

The pair, now residents of the Oaks Residential Care Home, met at Montague Burtons factory in 1947. Nora had started work there when she was 14 and John started work there on completing his National Service.

When John asked Nora how old she was she told him she was 16 (even though she was only 15). It was only when it came to her birthday that she confessed to her true age!

After courting for about a year John asked Nora to marry him. He took her to Manchester to buy an engagement ring but when they got to Manchester Nora decided she needed a new winter coat and would rather have this! She came home with a new coat and never bothered with the ring.

Three years after meeting, they married at St Anne’s Church, Hindsford, then went to Blackpool for a week on their honeymoon.

John worked at Burtons until it closed in the 1970s then became a postman based at Tyldesley sorting office. He always took pride in whatever he did and was noted as the only postman always to wear a shirt and tie!

Nora left Burton’s to work at Ward and Goldstones where she worked full time and then, as children came along, she worked part time on and off, her main priority was always to look after her children and she spent many years at home with them.

They have two daughters, Diane and Suzanne. Family has always been at the heart of John and Nora’s marriage and over the years they have been blessed with four grandchildren and a great granddaughter.

They had many holidays and days out at the British seaside. When they were younger they visited a variety of places from Devon to the Norfolk Broads and had lots of fond memories of their adventures.

In later years one of their favourite things to do was to walk to Atherton Central Station and catch the train to Southport for a day out. They were also well known for the walking they did around Tyldesley and Atherton and the surrounding fields – people still comment they miss seeing them around.

At home Nora loved knitting, sewing and doing crosswords and John loved decorating and watching snooker on TV. John was a keen amateur snooker player, he represented and practised weekly at Tyldesley Conservative Club. Although a staunch Labour voter he just preferred the tables there!

They lived happily in King William Street for over 60 years until Nora’s dementia meant John and her family could no longer care for her at home and she went to live at The Oaks. Diane and Suzanne supported John to visit Nora as often as they could but John was desperately unhappy being separated from Nora and after 18 months apart John moved into the care home with her. Thanks to the care and support of the staff at The Oaks they have been able to enjoy being together every day for the past four years.

Their daughters think the secrets to their long marriage are having a sense of humour, patience, understanding, loyalty and realising that the small things are actually the big things in life.

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