A CHANCE meeting outside a cinema led to 60 years of marriage for a Blackburn couple.

Harold Smith met his lifelong partner Dorothy in 1945 while they were waiting outside the former Royal Cinema in Ainsworth Street.

Mr Smith walked his bride-to-be home and they wed the next year.

Today Mrs Smith said: "I wasn't there looking for him! I was waiting for a girlfriend but she never came.

"Harold was waiting for his mates and that was it."

The couple celebrated their diamond wedding anniversary at the weekend at the Butlers Arms in Pleasington.

They were joined by best man from their wedding day, Henry Sumner, and bridesmaid and Mrs Smith's sister Margaret Pearce.

Mrs Smith, 79, said: "Every hour has been worth it, I have a good partner."

She said that the secret to a successful marriage was never to "fall out - and if you do, make up right away".

The couple were born and raised in Blackburn where they spent most of their lives.

Mr Smith worked at Witton Mill while Mrs Smith ran a grocer's shop on Livesey Branch Road. They now live in Bilsborrow, Preston.

Mr Smith, 84, served as an aircraft engine fitter in the RAF in the Second World War.

The couple have two children, four grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.