SIX years after they were head girl and deputy head boy at their Trowbridge school, Carly Burrows and Edward Ellis are tying the knot.

The 23-year-olds were schoolfriends from the age of 14 at St Augustine’s Catholic College, and at 16 they started dating.

Their relationship blossomed as they took up their posts in their final year at the school’s sixth form.

Mr Ellis said: “We were best friends by Year 9 and we had started going out when we were doing our GCSEs. To top it all off we took up our positions as head girl and deputy head boy alongside each other.”

The pair finally became engaged after spending several years travelling long distances to see each other.

Miss Burrows moved to London to study English, while Mr Ellis studied neuroscience at Cardiff. Mr Ellis said: “It didn’t stop there because after we had completed our degrees, Carly went to Exeter to study for her teaching qualifications and I moved to Newcastle to study medicine.

“We stuck at it and then Carly got her first teaching job and was able to move to Newcastle to join me.

I’ve got two more years of training, then we’d like to come back to the South West to be closer to our families.”

Mr Ellis proposed to Miss Burrows, whose parents live in Trowbridge, on August 2 while on a narrowboat at Bradford on Avon. Miss Burrows said: “I was completely surprised. I had no idea he was going to ask me to marry him. It was a nice surprise obviously and I said yes straight away.

“It was the perfect place to pop the question because it was just the two of us, but because we were back home our familes were also able to celebrate the good news, which was really important to us.”

The couple were joined by both their families in the Somerset Arms, in Semington, where they drank champagne.

On Monday they returned to their former school on Wingfield Road for the first time.

Miss Burrows said: “It is really strange to be back after all this time, but it was here that brought us together in the first place.”

Family and friends of the pair will have to wait a while before they eventually tie the knot, as they intend to get married when they move back to the South West in two years’ time, so they can celebrate the day with as many people as possible.