Harlow neighbours celebrate their 70th wedding anniversaries

(Photo: purple prom dress)

In April 1945 the Second World War was coming to an end, George VI was on the throne and a collection of small villages occupied the swathe of Essex countryside that, a decade later, was to become Harlow New Town.

It was also the year that two couples – who 70 years later live just a couple of doors away from each other off First Avenue – were married within a fortnight of each other.

Jack and Evelyn Baker tied the knot on March 17, and just two weeks later Bert and Doris Page followed them down the aisle. Evelyn and Doris were friends before they met their future husbands.

The couples, who are now celebrating their platinum wedding anniversaries, have been neighbours for all their married lives.

As children, Evelyn went to Fawbert and Barnards Primary School, Jack attended Eastwick School, Bert was a pupil at Churchgate School and Doris went to Netteswell School.

Bert, now 97, was born in Leicester and moved to the village of Harlow (now Old Harlow) when he was 11. He met Doris, now 92, when he was a teenager and they started courting, but were separated after the Second World War broke out.

During his four-and-a-half years of Army service Bert was stationed in Italy, France, Germany and Egypt, where he was briefly hospitalised after contracting malaria.

"Everyone thought the war would last for only six months but it ended up being six years," he said.

"I was granted leave to marry Doris at St Andrew's Church in Netteswell, before returning to the front line five days later."

Bert was demobbed eight months after they married and returned to Harlow, where the couple have lived ever since.

Jack, now 96, and Evelyn, 93, were aged 26 and 23 respectively when they married at Little Parndon Church in almost identical circumstances, as Jack also served in the Army during the war.

Both couples held their wedding receptions at the former Women's Institute Hall, now the Burnt Mill Snooker and Social Club, off Edinburgh Way.

Jack said: "I can't really remember our first date but we used to go out for walks. It was all you could do in those days, we didn't expect anything else."

Bert, one of nine children, is a former engineer, while Doris worked for many years as a lab technician in Old Harlow. The couple have two children, five grandchildren, ten great-grandchildren and three great-great- grandchildren.

Asked why she thought her grandparents' marriage had stood the test of time, granddaughter Julia, said: "You have to keep going and stick together through hard times, but it's a different world now."

Jack and Evelyn have one daughter and two grandchildren. Evelyn, who worked for the Home Office, said: "I can't put into words what I feel makes a successful marriage but having good health makes a difference."

Husband Jack, who worked as an engineer during the development of the new town, added: "I don't know, I guess you just jog along."

Having seen Harlow develop from suburban countryside to a thriving post-war town, the couples have mixed views on the transformation.

Evelyn said: "It was sad to see our woodland and fields being built on and trees being cut down. I kept thinking 'oh no, that's something else gone'."

But Doris added: "We have been happy living here and have a nice social life." Read more here:cheap evening gowns uk