Diamond wedding for sporting couple in Lancaster

Terry and Margaret Ainsworth of Alfred Street, Lancaster celebrate their 60th wedding anniversary this week and were delighted to receive a royal letter of congratulations for the occasion.

Terry and Margaret met when Terry had a job in the office at the Royal Albert Hospital and Margaret was a nurse at the hospital.

Terry said: “I saw Margaret and her friend and thought ‘by god she is good looking’ so after the weekend I asked to speak to student nurse Onyett and phoned her to make a date at the classy Odeon cinema which was the poshest cinema in Lancaster.

"We started going out and two and half years later we got married at Lancaster Priory on March 9, 1963.

“For our honeymoon we went to London and saw The Black and White Minstrels show, Brian Riggs in One for the Pot and then we went to watch the Mousetrap.

"We also went to watch Tottenham at White Hart Lane and it was wonderful, they won 6-0.

"We had twin boys in December of that year, David and Paul.

"It’s been a wonderful life.”

Terry who is now 81, was born at the family’s farm at Brookhouse in 1942.

Margaret, who is now 82, was born in 1940 at a house on Kingsdale Road in Lancaster.

Terry said: “Margaret was a fantastic athlete when she was younger. She went to Dallas Road School and they had a field with seats round it.

"Hurdles would be set up in the field and she would practice. When she was 15 she won the 80 yards hurdle in the 15-17 age group at the Lancashire Schools Athletics championships.

"She competed at the All England Championships and in the 1955-56 games was the sole representative from Lancaster.

"She was excellent but couldn’t continue when she became a student nurse at the Royal Albert Hospital as she couldn’t get time off.”

Terry started playing football when he was 15 in 1957 at Lancaster Giant Axe.

He played for the Dallas Road Lads Club then in five or six months moved to the Red Rose Boys Club in 1957-58.

In 1959 Terry had offers from four First Division clubs – Blackburn Rovers, Bolton Wanderers, Manchester City and Everton.

Terry said: “I went to Blackburn while I was still working at Storeys in Moor Lane.

"They wanted me to train Tuesday and Thursday but that petered out.

"I played a few times for them but it was a nightmare training and I couldn’t carry on.

"I came back playing locally for Dallas Road Lads Club. We had a very successful team, in 1961-62 they won every trophy in the Lancashire League.

"They were the best team I played for.

"In 1965-66 I ended up at Galgate, we were a really good team.

"A Liverpool scout came to one game but I was too old for him to take.

"At the age of 24 I ruptured my Achilles tendon and that was me finished with football.

"I’ve kept up my connections with football, I’m good friends with Jim Bentley (former Morecambe FC manager) and have been friends with Steve Perryman, captain at Tottenham for many years.

"I give football talks at The Toll House in Lancaster and my team is still Caton United.”

The couple bought their first business which was a nine-bed guest house in Cedar Street in Morecambe in 1968.

Margaret finished nursing at the Royal Albert and worked in the guest house.

Terry said: “Margaret took to it like a duck to water. We had that business for two years and then I had a job as well at ICI Middleton.

"We then bought The Victoria on Victoria Street in Morecambe and went in there and Margaret made a huge success of this as well.

"All through her life she has been a terrific businesswoman. She had a great way of talking to visitors and customers.

"We then had the opportunity to buy a 20 bedroom hotel the Elfordleigh (next door but one to what was Lubin’s cafe.)

"I took the bookings and kept the bills up-to-date and Margaret did the rest. It was just like falling off a log.

"We came out of the Eldfordleigh in 1980 and bought some holiday flats in the West End.

"We used to have visitors in the summer and students in the winter.

"When we had the flats we use to go to Portugal for six or seven weeks and did this for over 20 years.

"Margaret was back at the Royal Albert and could get six weeks off at once.”

The couple celebrated their silver wedding anniversary in 1988 and were invited to the Houses of Parliament by a cousin of Terry’s, Pamela, who had done some family tree research and discovered Lord and Lady Boston of Faversham (also called Terry and Margaret), were related to the Onyett family (Margaret’s maiden name).

Lady Boston was an Onyett family descendant.

Terry and Margaret met Lord and Lady Boston of Faversham and they became great friends.

For their pearl anniversary Lady Boston invited them to the Palace of Westminster.

Terry said: “Terry Boston showed us a huge row of coat hooks, there must have been 200 of them and he took us on a tour of the House of Lords and into the House of Commons.

"The bar at the House of Commons was crammed!

"We went into the dining room and we had dover sole and other things, it was wonderful.

"Margaret Thatcher was sat in the dining room, along with Michael Heseltine and Kenneth Clarke, it was a who's who."

Terry was into American football and over the years the couple visited America six times including Miami, Wisconsin and Illinois and watched American football games in each state they visited.

During their marriage Terry bought an ice cream van and sold Lewis’s ice cream from Bolton-le-Sands back into Morecambe then up to Heysham and out to Overton.

Terry said: “It was a fantastic business. I sold ice cream well into the 1990s. When I was around 55 I went to work at Cannon Hygiene on White Lund and I would work there for 10 years.

"We used to live in Morecambe, Lancaster Road, then about 28 years ago in 1996 we moved to Alfred Street.

"Margaret had retired by this time but I didn’t retire until around 2006/7.

"In 2002 I started raising money for the Royal Lancaster Infirmary and we used to have a reunion of former players from the Lancashire League.

“We had a night out at The Boot and Shoe and the £75 left over was donated to the orthopaedic ward.

"For 12 years we had the reunions, then moved to Skerton Liberal Club where 160-170 people attended and we started giving checks to the hospital for £5000-£6000 a year.”

Terry said: “ We have had a fantastic life, as for the secret to a happy marriage, I would say when you find the perfect partner and you’re in love (that’s not to say you don't have fallouts), you seem to grow together as time goes on. It's just been perfect, whatever the recipe was I wouldn’t try and tell anyone the mix for it.

"For our anniversary we are going to the Toll House for a slideshow and a meal with family and friends.

"We will have a good laugh and they will most likely laugh at some of the slides on the slideshow as well."