Platinum pair toast their 70-year union

A couple who honeymooned in Morecambe in 1946 fell in love with the place and are now celebrating their platinum wedding anniversary here.
Gladys and Norman Bell are celebrating their 70th wedding anniversary.Gladys and Norman Bell are celebrating their 70th wedding anniversary.
Gladys and Norman Bell are celebrating their 70th wedding anniversary.

Norman and Gladys Bell, 91 and 90 respectively, of Beaufort Road, Morecambe, liked Morecambe so much they moved here for good and set up home.

The couple were only 15 and 16 when they met at a local dance in Delph, a village in Saddleworth in 1941. Gladys said: “We didn’t know each other but it was love at first sight.”

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The couple started courting but then Norman left to join the Navy for three years as an electriclal engineer.

Norman and Gladys Bell on their wedding day in 1946.Norman and Gladys Bell on their wedding day in 1946.
Norman and Gladys Bell on their wedding day in 1946.

The couple wrote to each other as often as they could, then in 1946 Norman came out of the Navy to finish his apprenticeship.

Gladys, who worked in a woolen mill in Saddleworth at the age of 14, and Norman, married a few months later in Saddleworth Church.

Gladys said: “We came to Morecambe for our honeymoon and liked it so we decided to live here. The first house we bought was on Avondale Road.”

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Gladys and N0rman also had a guest house at Sandylands, which Gladys ran, whilst Norman worked for 33 years as an engineer working on the illuminations and street lighting in Morecambe and the surrounding areas.

Norman and Gladys Bell on their wedding day in 1946.Norman and Gladys Bell on their wedding day in 1946.
Norman and Gladys Bell on their wedding day in 1946.

During the lights switch on every year, Norman met stars including Roger Moore and Ronnie Corbett.Gladys and Norman shared a loved of modern sequence dancing, which they still did until Norman was in his late eighties.

The pair enjoyed holidaying in Torquay, Scotland, Wales, Benidorm and Salou.

The couple have two children, Michael, 66 and Barbara, 64 and one grandson. Norman likes to make a drop of homemade wine and most nights the couple have a little tipple. As for the secret to a happy marriage, both said: “We just get on. We’d be lost without each other. “

The couple are planning a family meal to celebrate their anniversary.

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