REACHING a 50-year Golden wedding anniversary is quite an achievement. Reaching a 60-year Diamond one is even more impressive. But to reach a 70-year Platinum anniversary is very special indeed and that is exactly what Bradford on Avon couple Dennis and Joyce Richman (nee Dickman) will do on Sunday, May 1.

Mr Richman, 92, and Mrs Richman, 90, of Downs View, met in early 1945 in Sevenoaks, Kent at a ballroom dance, after Mr Richman had spent 19 months in Sierra Leone in the Royal Army Ordnance Corps. At the tail end of the year they got engaged and several months later married in Bradford on Avon's Christ Church in 1946.

The couple moved shortly after in live in Bradford on Avon, where they have remained ever since.

"We have been happily married for all this time. We have always been extremely happy together and we love each other just as much as when we first fell in love," said Mr Richman.

"You never envisage that you will be married for this long but I am very happy we have, naturally. I never thought I would reach the age I am let alone reach 70 years of marriage.

Mr Richman, who worked at the Spencer Moulton Factory in Bradford on Avon and then Melksham's Avon Rubber from the 1950s to the mid-1980s, was not entirely sure what the recipe for a long and successful marriage was.

"I am not sure really but I guess it involves a bit of give and take. We have always shared everything, we have a lot of similar interests and we compliment each other well. Without doubt I am very looking forward to celebrating 70 years together on Sunday," he said.

The couple had two children, Barbara in 1948, and Mike three years later.

Their son Mike Richman, 64, who will be joining his parents and five other family members at a surprise location on Sunday to celebrate the anniversary, said: "Looking on them as an outsider, they are absolutely devoted to one another. I can honestly say I have never seen a couple that are better suited for each other than they are.

"The live in a bubble. They pay no attention as the world goes by, they are just so happy together after all this time. It is quite an achievement.

"It is unheard of for them to argue. They have allowed us to be independent but they have always been there to support us.

"Dad likes to be pampered, so me and my sister thought this would do quite nicely."

The couple have four grandchildren, six great grandchildren and one great great grandchild.